We flew onto the radio controlled helicopter runway quite by accident when my daughter brought one home she had won in a school science competition. The helicopter was a basic mini-micro helicopter created primarily for indoor use. The controls were very simple to operate maneuvering the helicopter up, down, left and right. A nine volt battery ran the chopper happily around the house until our young son revengefully flew it into the flames of our eager fireplace. It literally went down into a melted blaze of glory.

Our daughter was devastated so we journeyed to the local hobby shop to see what radio controlled choppers were available.The whole story can be found at http://www.slashgear.com/griffin-helo-tc-remote-controlled-helicopter-controlled-by-your-iphone-14164938/ She chose a bright blue helicopter with rechargeable batteries that permitted a 10 minute flight on an hour long. Light weight choppers like this are better off indoors. The wind happily plucked the unit mid-flight and dashed it into a tree trunk. Back to the hobby store we went to obtain something more durable.

We allowed both kids to select a chopper for themselves. Daughter chose a sleek Black Hawk Helicopter which larger foot-long size was strictly for outdoor usage. The three channel joystick radio control transmitter had an integrated charger for the rechargeable lithium polymer battery inside the chopper. The tri-band remote allows for three extra helicopters to fly automatically alongside in formation without interference from each other. Counter-rotating blades allow for a self-balancing flight. Flying range from the remote is around 4 feet. A USB charging lead plugs into any computer or adapts to an electric socket for a simple 20 minute charging time for 7 minutes of flight time.

Son chose a standard army helicopter counter-rotating blades for balanced flight. Flexible plastic blades bounced off of surfaces in case of accidental collision and limited crash landings. The crazy contraption is even equipped with a fog fluid tank to stimulate exhaust. It came with a charger for the nickel cadmium battery allowing for 8 minutes of flight on a half hour charge time. The remote control is two channels and has a 3 and half foot control range. We had a difficult time talking him out of the two channel radio controlled helicopter that ran on gas and shot plastic bullets up to twelve feet away.

A remote controlled army tank cranks around the floor to complement the helicopters whizzing gracefully above so our children’s dreams of being an army ranger are complete.