need help with helicopter for 10 year old

[randy]

every year we find famlies in our area in need of help. this year we have a great family really wonderful people in need of help. The 10 year old son wants a radio controlled helicopter. I know there is a lot of knowledge on this board. So a nice begginner level helicopter recommendation is needed. 10 years old boy will be the receipent.

[Albert]

Can't help with the helicopter Randy but you're a good dude. Happy Holidays.

[squints]

First off THANKS for giving back. Our club Mountaineer BMW Riders(MOA#34) adopts 10 SALVATION ARMY Angels every year and its the highlight of the year for us shopping for them.For my son (started around 7 or 8) we have had real good luck with the AIRHOG brand that Wal-Mart sales. Very manueverable and durable. ToysRus has one by same company thats called the OSPREY ($70 or so)takes off veritical then flies similar to a plane. You can get better than AIRHOG brand at the hobby shops but they start around $100.00 where the Airhogs are around the $30.00 range. They have ones that can bettle with each other. one fires small plastic missile, and one the drive like a car on the floor then takes off like normal. Whatever brand make sure you have the counter rotating blades to make it easy to control. Lot of choices out there. Good luck!

[cali_beemer]

I played around with one of these at my local Hobbytown USA:

 

http://www.rcboca.com/blade-mcx-bind-n-fly.html

 

It was pretty fun and easy to use. It might be a bit more money than you want to spend. I can tcompare to the others, but it was so fun I came close to buying one myself.

[notacop]

I saw a stack of them in a store recently and dang if I can remember. Try Best Buy or Radio Shack or maybe Kmart.. The ones I saw were definitely for the kid types.

Wife always grabs an Angel or 2 off the tree at church each year. Nice thing to do.

[tobyzusa]

Brookstone - $49

[chrisolson]

You will want one with coaxial blades like cali beemer's link. That particular one is a well known brand, but designed primarily for indoor flight or dead calm days (the rotor diameter is only 7.5 inches) and requires a separate purchase for the transmitter - not sure what your intentions are.

 

Do not buy a "normal" single main blade helicopter - they are devilish to learn how to fly and expensive based on multiple "incidents" during the learning phase.

 

As with anything watch out for the really cheap stuff and do look at the specs to understand the size of the blades, expected running time and exactly what's included in the box. Besides the helicopter, you'll need a transmitter, batteries for both the transmitter and model and a charger for the batteries since most RC models run on lithium polymer chemistry.

 

Google: coaxial rc helicopter

 

and you'll get more than enough options

 

 

[bayoubengal]

AirHawgs are great bamg for the buck and are fun fun fun...

[David13]

They can be dangerous. Some of the older ones were known as death traps. I did see one leg seriously chopped from one.

They can also be seriously expensive, and crash in a NY minute, which is much shorter than other minutes.

Severely damaging the unit, and causing expensive repairs.

Many of them take a well developed skill to learn to fly. And a great deal of tuning and adjusting on a regular basis.

I don't know the brand on this one. But I would recommend it.

dc

(Recommend that passengers not eat lunch before ride).

[notacop]

What was all that crap about lights in the night skies making maneuvers that normal aircraft cannot do?

This heli flight shows that a rotary craft can make direction changes that will confuse the best of observers.

That's absolutely spectacular! Aliens indeed!

[upflying]

Pretty impressive RC helicopter flying. Show this video to the needy 10 year old so he has something to work towards. Thanks for your generosity.