Richie’s new toy
image by jarcob — click to enlarge
This is a flying model helicopter having two rotary wings, each providing lift and counter-torque for the other. The tail rotor is just for show.
And yep, it flies superbly — here it is doing a turn of Richie’s living room...
image by jarcob — click to enlarge
posted by Jacob A. Stam at 10/21/2007 11:15:00 PM
4 Comments:
Wow! I am suitably impressed Jarcob!
Where can I get one, huh?
I'll have to ask Richie about that, but I can tell you that he told me it cost only $250!!!
He also told me it's made by a Melbourne company.
You get a usb cable and software so that you can train yourself to fly the thing on your pc. Lithium battery and charger that'll keep you airborne for 20 mins at a time. Spare rotors...
One neat thing is that, on a hot day like it was today here in Melbourne, you can hover the thing above yourself to fan yourself.
The only downside I can see is that the thing's terribly susceptible to wind and other air turbulence. When Richie flew it by his air conditioning vent, it chucked a bit of a wobbly. Forget flying it outside on a windy day, unless you particularly enjoy thrills and spills.
I actually have a brother-in-law who bought himself one of these helicopters a year or two back.
Mid fifties and flying chippy-choppers!
Richie (my kid bro'-in-law) has been a life-long enthusiast of all kinds of models - cars, trucks, airplanes, etc. He has several huge r-c model planes that he flies regularly.
I suggested to him it might be cool to strap a video camera to this little chopper to get some spectacular aerial footage, but R reckons it's simply not powerful enough.
There are two electric motors, but apparently these are only enough to take the machine itself aloft with any sort of navigability.
Seems to me a limited source of entertainment with zero practical utility. But still, he's happy enough with it, which is all that matters, I guess.
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