Bought one of these little cheapo choppers to keep me amused during lockdown. Just £22 at the moment. Fly it around the lounge and practice spot landings while watching TV. Nice engineering and very low price. OK, I know it's not a 'proper' heli as it has contra rotating rotors, I have a proper mini heli and that is nowhere near as easy to fly as this is, but less durable as well! Good fun for the money anyway. https://amzn.to/32pVzpf affiliate link

Syma 107G helicopter - Loads of Indoor Flying Fun - Just 22 at the moment! (2 min 41 sec)

Coaxials get a bad rap. I like them.

Totally agree, OK much easier than my proper little WLToys 911S heli , but this little baby is fun to fly around the house! Cheap and will take a knock or two!

As a 3 channel, doesn’t that limit your maneuverability options? For a little more money you could get a 4 channel that can do anything. Anything straight and level that is.

Originally Posted by Trisquire

As a 3 channel, doesn’t that limit your maneuverability options? For a little more money you could get a 4 channel that can do anything. Anything straight and level that is.

As it has a fly bar, contra-rotating blades, and no rotor head I don't see how 4 channels could ever make it do anything else. Without a rotor head it can't move sideways for example. 'Proper' choppers with a rotor head cost more too.

It doesn't actually go 'straight and level'. The tail rotor on these don't rotate the chopper, it's set the other way and when it rotates it lifts or pushes the tail boom up or down and the change in angle makes it go forwards or backwards.

I'm not a heli expert, but that's the way I see it anyway!

The thing I don't like about three channel helis is the steering is on the aileron stick for mode 2. Fine for rudder elevator planes but for a heli it trains you wrong since steering is on the rudder stick.

Originally Posted by Petefoss

The thing I don't like about three channel helis is the steering is on the aileron stick for mode 2. Fine for rudder elevator planes but for a heli it trains you wrong since steering is on the rudder stick.

Totally agree with you about that. I have a WLToys 911S as well, what I'd call a 'proper chopper' , single rotor, no fly bar and proper rotor swash plate thing, I find it hard when I switch from one to the other. Takes my brain a while to adjust. I even wondered if I could open up the tx and switch a couple of connections to make it OK. I doubt it can be done.

Originally Posted by bobflyman2

As it has a fly bar, contra-rotating blades, and no rotor head I don't see how 4 channels could ever make it do anything else. Without a rotor head it can't move sideways for example. 'Proper' choppers with a rotor head cost more too.

It doesn't actually go 'straight and level'. The tail rotor on these don't rotate the chopper, it's set the other way and when it rotates it lifts or pushes the tail boom up or down and the change in angle makes it go forwards or backwards.

I'm not a heli expert, but that's the way I see it anyway!

I think that is indeed the way the 3-channel ones work. There are four channel contra-rotating rotor helis that can do more, such as the Blade MCX that I have. The top rotor is connected to the flybar and doesn't do anything except rotate, but the bottom rotor has two servos connected to it and a rotor head, so the heli can move in yaw, pitch and roll axes - but very gently . There is no tail rotor at all. I am keeping it for my grandson, who is just a little young at 4, but I think he will soon be ready! He drives my Eachine EAT06 RC tank around pretty competently.

I used to think that no full-sized helis have this sort of contra-rotating system, but it turns out the Russians at least have lots of them, and they are very large and capable. A big advantage is that without a tail boom and tail rotor they can operate from very constrained spaces.

The Russian equivalent of the Apache is a contra. It looks sinister in the best way.

You should try a blade 70s/esky 150v2. They are proper helis and fly as easy and almost as cheap as a coax heli. Plus you can bind them to any updated opentx transmitter with a 4in1 multiprotocol module (internal or external). They're rugged as heck too. Can fly around the living room and bump into stuff without any worries. My old coax got broken unrepairably doing that.

Originally Posted by Mortimerex

You should try a blade 70s/esky 150v2. They are proper helis and fly as easy and almost as cheap as a coax heli. Plus you can bind them to any updated opentx transmitter with a 4in1 multiprotocol module (internal or external). They're rugged as heck too. Can fly around the living room and bump into stuff without any worries. My old coax got broken unrepairably doing that.

Thanks, I'll check them out.