Remote Control Helicopters

There is an open area near my house that they plan on building new homes or condos, about 1/2 mile of empty land just waiting for someone with an r/c helicopter to fly around. I stopped and asked if I could watch, and the guy said sure. This reminded me of a purchase last year...

In late October, I purchased two Picco Z (youTube) helicopters from Radio Shack. The cats loved them and too bad I didn't video them trying to swat them down. The little heli's where tiny and the charges didn't last long but they were fun to mess around with. They are meant for indoor flight but I took them outside and the wind shot one into the neighbors yard, and if it didn't then the infrared failed. But what can you expect from $40, huh? After the novelty wore off, back to the store they went.

Well, back to the "real" helicopter. This thing was about big and looked like one of those executive helicopters. The guy asked me if I had any experience with them and I told him about the little Piccos. He laughed and said he had three of them for his kids. He flew it around and did some cool tricks with it and then later asked if I wanted to get it off the ground.

He gave me the control and showed me what sticks did what. I made very minute changes because I didn't want to wreck his helicopter. I got it off the ground about 5 feet flew it forward and did small circles and even got it to hover in one spot! OK, no crashes here ya go, thanks! I know how expensive they are so I let him take the control while it was in the air.

I noticed that in the back of his pickup, there was a WWII plane model. He stated that he uses the water park parking lot as the runway. Maybe I'll run into him again when he flies the plane. So, that was my interesting event for the day...