Not sure which mini rc helicopter you should buy? I’ve owned at least a half dozen in the past year or so and I thought I’d share my thoughts on which ones worked good and which ones weren’t worth the money!
First thing you should realize when you’re buying any mini RC helicopter is that these things are intended as toys. They aren’t for serious hobbyists and therefore you can’t expect the same level of build quality and functionality that you can in a $300+ 6 Channel model!
Common sense stuff I know! But so many times you read reviews on amazon or on forums where the people are crapping all over these little choppers because they won’t do things that they were never designed to do. These little guys are designed for indoor use, 10min flying time tops and as long as you don’t expect too much, they’re fun as hell!
There are ton of mini RC helicopters out there today and most of them are pure crap! But there are a few coming out now that actually live up to the promise of controllable flight and I own a few that work pretty well. So lets take a look at which ones to use, and which ones to stay away from.
The Falcon V – STAY AWAY
Well it’s not THAT bad. I bought two last year in February and out of those 2, one of them worked pretty good. I returned the broken one to the store for another one which worked ok for about 2 weeks and then it just stopped charging, the lady at the store told me that they have had major troubles with these choppers. I kept meaning to take it back but never got around to it…
Actually when they work, these choppers are pretty fun to fly, they are 3 channel and have the built in gyroscope but I think the quality control issues with the Falcon products just make them not worth the money. This Christmas they were also advertising a larger model (Probably 14″?), and it looked pretty cool but after the experiences with the smaller Falcon V, I’d say stay away!
Helizone Firebird – Go For It!
Ok, mine is still in the mail, but I used my friends the other day for a couple of hours and I think it’s going to be the top pick for my site for now. It works awesome, charge time vs fly time was great and it looks really cool.
You can find these on amazon for some pretty good prices and they seem to be readily available now. There was awhile back this spring that no one could find them. I’d highly recommend this as one of the best 3ch mini RC Helicopters out there.
Syma S107 – The “other” Best Indoor RC Heli
Now there is a lot of talk that the Syma and the Firebird are basically the same chopper and I think in a lot of ways they essentially are. However in every test we’ve done the Firebird comes out consistently faster than the Syma so there is definitely something working a little better, which is why I’m going for the Firebird this time around!
I’ve had a couple of Symas and they work great, easy to control, easy to fly and easy to fix! Replacement parts are so readily available that you’ll have no trouble keeping your Syma flying for a long time to come.
Check out my Syma s107 Helicopter Review for more information and good luck in your search for a new mini RC Helicopter!
