Tenergy Syma S107/S107G R/C Helicopter - Yellow

I had a buddy who wanted one of these things a year ago, he did a lot of research on the web and was really excited about the Syma S107G. So this year I decided that my wife needed some help picking out a Valentines Day present for me and ordered one from Amazon. As usual the shipping was fast and the little chopper came well wrapped, and had all the right markings so I'm sure it's the genuine Syma product. I did get the replacement blade and parts set just in case. I've tried model airplanes before and never had one fly for more than a few seconds before I managed to smash it to bits so I was pretty nervous about this one, and I had purchased a small chopper at the mall a year ago but it had only one set of main blades and a conventional tail rotor....and was extremely hard to control.....avoid those at all costs. So I quickly plugged my little yellow Syma into the USB port, and a while later when the plug started to glow again I knew I was ready to fly. Popped 6 AA batteries into the control unit and started testing it out. Just move the left lever up slowly and see what happens when it tries to take off, mine didn't need any trim adjustments with the center knob so I practiced lifting off and setting it down a few times to get a feel for the collective control. It does tend to be quite a bit more squirrly down close to the floor, kind of a ground effect thing that makes it really scoot and requires quick correction if you don't want to hit something. I found that it's pretty easy to reposition the chopper from a bad landing spot to a more open area just by giving it a bit of lift then turning it and scooting it over to a safer place. Experience with my other chopper tells me that the little tail rotor motor can easily pick up lint or hair fibers that wrap around the shaft and slow it down....you have to get a needle or xacto blade and dig that stuff out if you notice a lack of response to the forward/back controls. Once you get it up off the floor a foot or so these things are AMAZINGLY stable, the gyro is just awesome! Make sure you have a good grip on the control box and don't let your body movements cause unwanted control inputs......at times I found myself accidentally giving it a lot of power and the little bird jumps up and bounces off the ceiling......then you try and react and over correct dropping it to the floor. I am very impressed at the amount of abuse mine has taken and still not a bit of damage or loss of control. I've crashed it into things, even let it get into the hallway when the furnace was running and it got sucked up towards the main air filter intake......hit the ceiling, then the wall, bounced over to the other wall, and hit the floor hard......set it back upright and she flew without a hitch.......a VERY WELL MADE PRODUCT!!!!! So now I'm doing a lot better, can do figure 8's and send it down to the kitchen, buzz the wife (of course) and make it back, I can avoid the ceiling fan chains and wish the dogs would come out so I could torture them. Next thing is to start checking out some of the "Mods" that folks are doing to these things, especially where they put the little keychain video camera underneath and make in-flight movies. I'll be checking into modifying it to be able to quickly change out batteries and have a couple fully charged spares so I can keep playing. For less than $30 bucks you just can't beat all the technology, quality, and durability they've managed to pack into this little gem. I think my next one will be controlled by my iPhone......looks like fun. Happy FLYING!!!!

Did you grow up dreaming of RC helicopters? I know that I did. But when I was a kid they were nothing more than a fantasy in a Popular Mechanics magazine. Sometime in the 1990s RC copters became available, but they were thousands of dollars and out of reach of most people. Then about 5 years ago they started to make affordable ones, costing around $100. These copters always seemed to last about 5 minutes, and then crashed and snapped a wing. Nobody likes that very much. They were also harder to control. Now lets visit the present, where you can get a $20 Syma 107 that is absolutely awesome in every single way. Here are some great attributes from my personal experience: 1. I have crashed the darn thing over 50 times and it has not broken yet. Still flies right and true. 2. It was extremely easy to master the controls after dedicating about 3-5 flights (battery lasts 15 minutes) 3. Easy to control with just 2 joysticks. There is an up and down, and a fly around (there is also a trim tab but I never use it) 4. The battery lasts a solid 15 minutes. This is enough time to keep a grown adult's interest. I fly mine at coffee breaks to curb the monotony of my desk job. 5. It only takes 45 minutes to charge, and the charger has a light indicator to tell you when it is done. Cons: 1. You really cannot complain about this copter. It is an incredible $20 toy. The battery time of 15 minutes initially sounds disappointing, but after you have had it a couple days it is just enough of a "play break". 2. You cannot fly this outside (but so what?). The wind does not favor well with this little guy. You can upgrade to a larger Syma copter for around $50-$100 and get an outdoor one. Getting started: After you are all charged up, find a bedroom or other space indoors where there is still and quiet airspace. This sounds funny, because it is indoors. But I found that there were mini thermal currents in some parts of my house, mainly by my staircase. They actually made the copter a little difficult to control, which amused me. You'll be able to handle these minor air currents once you master the controls. I choose a larger bedroom. The bed provides the perfect place to take off and land (you can also place a large book on the bed as a landing pad). The real advantage of a bedroom is the fact that the air is very still. Make sure your heating or cooling vents are closed and not blasting air currents. I would recommend just making the thing hover at first. Just focus on one of the controls (the left joystick that goes up and down). Don't worry about the direction or steering at first. Just get a feel for up and down, and make it hover. When you have a good feel for that, and can make the thing hover almost completely in place (there will always be some up and down play), then move onto making it steer in different directions. Durability I didn't even have to buy a the blade replacement. This little copter is just that durable. For $20 I am frankly amazed. This is one of the most fun toys I have ever owned, and worth every penny. The battery has lasted over 100 charges with no issues.

This remote helicopter is a great toy for my girlfriend's 9 year old. I know he is younger than the recommended age, but he does well enough with it anyway. As many others said, the charge time is a bit long (30-45 minutes) but it gets about 10 minutes of flying before it just becomes a spinning floor decoration. It was smaller than I thought it would be, but it is perfect for my tiny apartment. I would not trust it outside. Despite what others have suggested, it seems that it is fairly durable. Myself and my kid have smacked it into walls, ceilings, floors, christmas trees, desks, etc. and have not broke a single blade, fin, etc. I bought a spare set of parts just in case, but we have used it for about 3 weeks not on a fairly regular basis (at least once or twice a day) and it is still in good shape. USB charging is really nice, and the ability to charge from the controller is also nice if you want to take it to a friend's house. The controller is a bit bulky, but not too bad. I would like a bit "softer" controls for the left stick (the rotor speed/height). You have to really concentrate sometimes to get it to either not go straight to the ceiling or fall to the floor, and if you let up even a little, the spring is strong, so it will drop out of the air quickly. The blades do sting a bit if you happen to get hit by them, so it is not for kids to chase each other with... plus, I would imagine they would get caught in hair pretty easily. Despite what all of the descriptions say, it is not 3 channel. There is an A and a B channel... Maybe there is a secret third channel that cannot be changed? Bottom line: Great, inexpensive fun. Your kids will love you, and your cat will hate you (both pluses in my book)

I'm not going to lie, these are GREAT! The S107G was the FIRST RC copter that I ever used. I've had them for about 3 months now. These are tons of FUN for the price, BUT they can break if abused too much. If you never flew a RC helicopter than these are PERFECT for the newbee. If its your first time using a RC copter than READ ALL of the INSTRUCTIONS...... TWICE or THREE TIMES just to make sure that you understand how these work. These are whats called "CO-AXIAL" helicopters because they have TWO sets of main blades. The mini Co-axials are PERFECT for indoor flight, they are VERY STABLE indoors and they have about a 30 foot range because these are IR (Infra Red). Your remote control for your TV is also IR, and as you know, if something is blocking the IR signal than you will lose the signal (and can't change the channel or whatever). As long as you can see your mini copter, and your less than 30 feet away, than you wont lose the signal. BUT if you try and fly around something big and your RC remote/transmitter doesn't have a "direct line of sight" than your copter might lose the signal and fall. FYI (For Your Information), just because the mini Co-axial is PERFECT for INDOOR flight, it doesn't mean that BIGGER co-axials are good for OUTDOOR flight. For example, I bought a 28 inch Co-axial copter called "Double Horse 9101" and I thought since its like 2 feet bigger than the mini S107G, I thought it would fly great OUTSIDE. But the BIG Co-axial copters are BAD (outdoors and indoors unless your in a gynasium)! If there is ANY wind outside (I'm talking about the DH 9101) than my copter wouldn't be able to move forward with just a LITTLE bit of wind. And if there is like a 5mph gust of wind than my DH 9101 will just DROP OUT OF THE SKY because the BIG blades will hit eachother (its called BLADE SMACK) and if my DH 9101 was 15 feet up and crashes than parts BREAK! To be honest with you, my S107G can fly outside, but only at night time, and it might get swept away in the wind but it wont just DROP OUT OF THE SKY because the blades are NOT as big as the 28 inch DH 9101. Don't get a BIG co-axial unless you just want a decoration or whatever. And if you buy THREE S107Gs than you can fly one and have the other 2 charging. Also, if you break one than you'll have the other two to play with and you can use the broken one for parts or get it fixed. If its your first time using one of these mini copters than keep it as far away from the walls, furnniture, ceiling or anything that might hit it. If you have a 20ft by 20 ft room (with minimal furnature) than it will be perfect to get used to your controls. The S107Gs are well built and can take alot of crashes, but they can break. If your a noob than Id recommend that you practice JUST lifting off about a foot, hovering for 20 seconds or so, than land. Than go up to 2 feet off the ground, hover than land. Because if you can hover and land than everthing else is easy. Another thing to mention is that your mini copter will have LOTS of lifting/up power on a fully charged battery. After 6 mins of flight than your copter will NOT be able to "climb"/ascend up as fast and eventually the battery will be so drained that you won't be able to lift off the ground or whatever your copter is on. On a scale of 1 - 10 (1 being really bad and 10 being really good) Id rate the Syma S107Gs a solid 9. Get to know your copters controls before you try and fly next to anything. Eventually you'll be able to fly all around your house and land on anything flat, as long as its a square foot or bigger. And if you crash, or crashing, make sure that you let off the throttle. You can land on a bunch of surfaces, but when you take off, your copter needs to be on a realitivly flat surface or it will roll over or start flying at an angle that your not expecting. I'm sure your pets are going to be amazed and/or scared at first. I love doing "fly bys" or fly over my cats. HAHA, at first they were scared because it looks "dangerous" but after some time I can be hovering 1-2 feet over my cats and they just look at it, or if they are tired they will just sleep. HAHA. I believe that EVERYONE deserves to have FUN, and these are FUN! I hope I helped someone. I'm a Christian so its my job to be the best person I can be for God and His children. God bless!

Good: Sharp looking and very easy to fly. Controls aren't perfect, but precise enough to let you maneuver in tight spaces - the gyro stabilization helps a lot here. Adequate flight time on a charge, although recharging can take awhile. The included USB cable might be faster than charging off the controller; haven't tried that yet. Pivoting rotor blades were an excellent idea; looks like this thing can take a lot of punishment, and spare parts are available. Perfect for an older child or novice RCer. Bad: Didn't realize until I had it in hand that the remote control is infrared, NOT radio. This is not a good thing. The copter has receivers at front and rear, but reception still pretty much requires line-of-sight, and at that is iffy beyond a few feet. I doubt it would work at all outdoors. You'll know when you don't have contact, because the thing drops like it was shot the instant it loses signal. A fallback controlled-descent mode should have been built in. Note that there is not one word in the product description regarding infrared, whereas the phrases "Frequencies may vary" and "Full 3 channels" strongly imply radio control. Irritating, and borderline dishonest. Ugly: "List price: $129.99"!? If I'd paid anywhere near that price for the three I bought as gifts, I would have returned them immediately upon discovering the infrared link. Bottom line: A fun, good quality $20 toy, but don't pay much more than that for it. Five stars for fun and design of the chopper itself, minus two for the rude surprise re the remote control link. ** UPDATE ** (1/3/12): I finally smacked my copter (yeah, I kept one of the three for myself :) ) into the ceiling one too many times, and thereafter it would oscillate wildly out of control the instant it left the floor. Per net research this is a common problem with R/Cs of this type - they call it the "toilet bowl effect" for reasons which will be obvious when you witness it. (This is also relevant for new, out of the box copters btw - keep reading.) I tinkered with the beast for an evening, and eventually discovered that the upper rotor blades have _two_ pivots: one lets the blades yield if they hit something, same as the lower one does, but the whole upper assembly also pivots longitudinally on the rotor hub, changing pitch (as controlled by the dumbbell-shaped gyro just above) to keep the copter stable in flight. That longitudinal pivot (a plastic peg coming out of the hub) was broken. I disassembled the upper hub ( precision Phillips screwdriver required) and replaced it with a new one (hub only; the old shaft wasn't bent). Problem solved. NB: The gyro and upper rotor *MUST* pivot freely on the hub to work properly. I had to clean some flashing out of the shaft holes in the new hub with a Dremel tool with 1/16" burr bit to make this happen. A small dab of silicone grease helped as well. Anyway, this is relevant for new purchases because one of the three I bought had this problem out of the box, and we discovered that the aforementioned rotor pivot was indeed broken, with the broken-off nub nowhere to be found - possibly a manufacturing defect. A new upper hub fixed this problem as well.

I had seen these little RC choppers flood the market for the last few years, and iv flown a few of them in stores, at first they were a little bulky, with short flight times,. and clunky flight controls. but this one caught my attention due to all the good reviews it was getting,. and because it was under 20$ At 20$ I figured if I got two or three days' worth of flight time out of it before it broke, and got to chase my cats a few times with it, I would be coming out ahead for the sheer entertainment value. But amazingly I've been flying this little bird for two weeks now, multiple times per day, and crashing multiple times per day,. (some fairly hard crashes) and it just keeps on ticking,. after probably over 50 crashes, I am starting to see some wear and tear on the propellers, and iv had to do some fine adjustments, ever so slightly re bending this or that back into perfect alignment, but beyond that she still fly's perfectly straight and level and flight times continue to stay at about 7-8 min. So this little bird,. is very sturdy. The build quality on this helicopter is way higher than I had expected for 20$. Flight controls are the best iv tried, if you're at all good at controlling a game controller you will pick this up quickly, if you're not flying perfectly on the first battery charge,. you will be by the second. The S107G is made for indoor flight so she's not very fast,. You don't want fast indoors or you'll just be constantly hitting the walls,. While you don't have much speed,. You have a lot of fine control, hovering in one spot is very easy,. And once you get a hang of the three control axis you will be zipping around the living room ducking under tables, landing on your friends outstretched hand, and tormenting your pets. As a cat toy,. It fails,. All three of my cats are very interested in it when its flying at a distance,. (its about the right size for a small bird, and not very noisy at all) so they watch it very intently,. But if it gets close enough for them to feel the down draft of the propellers they scatter in fear,. My neighbor's dog will chase it all over the yard, however,. I don't recommend letting a dog catch it,. As a human toy its simply awesome,. If your kid is dexterous enough to play a computer game, he or she will be able to fly this. To get good at landing and taking off, I put an office box in the middle of my living room and treated it as a "sky scraper landing platform" the smaller, and taller the box, the trickier it is to precision land,. so I started with a large box, and now I'm down to being able to land it on a small candy box about the size of my hand. doing this also helps you learn about the "edge" drafts you have to adjust for when flying near steep drop offs or in tight spaces. Recommended upgrades: I am going to be changing the main tail tube to carbon fiber,. as well as the two tail support rods, this should reduce weight, extend flight time a little,. and by removing weight from the back half,. I will be making it forward heavy, slightly increasing the forward speed. (Be warned this will also give it a slight permanent forward movement when hovering). Although there is a weight in the nose of the chopper, if you really want removing that will likely balance you back out again, if you don't want the added speed or the permanent forward movement. If you're going to upgrade the battery, get the 250 mAh upgrade battery that's out there,. do not do what one of the other reviewers did and add a 70 mAh battery to the existing battery, this is for a complicated reason,. but to simplify, when you add non equal (sized) batteries like that, the 70mAh battery will drain out much faster than the 150-200 mAh battery, once that happens,. performance will drop for the remaining mAh, think of it this way, you have two gas tanks, one is a gallon, and the other is two gallons, your "toy" takes from both tanks equally so the 1 gallon tank will empty before the 2 gallon tank empties, when this happens, the empty tank starts to act as a deficit for the remaining amount of fuel in the 2 gallon tank. In addition your charging circuit is going to get very confused by this de-balanced pairing, as it will try to charge both equally, though the smaller 70mAh tank will fill up first and trick the charger into thinking the system is fully charged, when it really is not. (This was grossly simplified, rule of thumb, it's just a very bad idea to match non matching (size) batteries in parallel). So if you're going to go to the trouble of ordering an upgrade battery just get the single 250mAh battery, that will give you much better flight times, will not degrade flight characteristics, and will not confuse the charging circuit.

I bought two of these intending to give them to my kids for Christmas. They arrived today and I decided to try them out so I didn't get any surprises Christmas morning and so I could have them charged and ready to go when the kids opened them instead of waiting for them to charge. Lucky thing I did. I read the instructions (which weren't exactly in English) and hooked the first one up to my computer for charging. With the charge seemingly complete and batteries placed in the controller it was time for the first test flight. The blades began to whirr and I waited in great anticipation for lift off. I didn't have to wait long. With lights flashing, as quickly as the blades started turning, they stopped...and out went the lights! Thinking that perhaps I did something wrong or took them off the charge prematurely, I put it back to charging. The second attempt at flight was much like the first but this time it stopped even sooner. By about the sixth attempt at charging this little devil not even the lights worked. I read and reread the instructions. I searched the web for possible solutions. Exhausting those resources, I figured I just had the bad misfortune of getting a dud. Surely the second one would be different. It was...but not in a good way. I hooked up the helicopter to my computer, following the instructions to a tee. I plugged the cord into the computer. The little light glowed red. I put the other end into the the little monster. That red light went out just as the instructions said it would. After an hour and a half of charging and not having the light to indicate a full charge ever go on, I decided that I would give it a whirl. Much like the first one, the blades began to spin making a pleasant sound. Again they suddenly stopped without the machine ever gaining enough speed to budge. I never expected what happened next. I turned off the switch and hooked it back up for additional charging. As soon as I plugged the wire into the helicopter the blades started turning. I must have left the thing on. Wrong! I flipped the switch to the "on" position and the blades stopped. Switching it back to the "off" position resulted in my having a neat little computer fan that didn't make much of a breeze. The only thing worse for a kid (of any age) on Christmas morning is to have to wait for a toy to charge before they can play with it is to wait for it to charge and not work. Thankfully I tested this piece of satan doodie before wrapping it and putting it under the tree. Not only did I avoid the disappointed looks of two kids, I also avoided the ill feelings towards the evil sons of hades who made/sold me this "flying" (feel the sarcasm?) lump of donkey excrement. They sure sound like fun but buy at your own risk. I won't make that mistake again.

I've always liked remote controlled models. I had several radio controlled cars when I was younger and always dreamed of building an airplane or helicopter that could really fly. Unfortunately the larger flying models ended up being difficult to fly and maintain. Not because I couldn't build them, but more because they require a lot of space to operate and also can break VERY easily if you aren't well practiced in how to fly them. Put simply I wanted a toy I could mess around with but not something I had to spend hours and hours working on as a full-time hobby. The Syma S107 helicopter is simply amazing. You can seriously take this thing out of the box, charge it up, and begin flying it without any practice or any worries. It flies amazingly stable! As long as you don't "floor it" and push the stick all the way to the top immediately you'll be fine (otherwise you'll fly straight into the ceiling). The helicopter can easily simply hover in one spot. This ability to me is just amazing when you consider how much design and technology has to go into accomplishing something like this. The body is actually very durable with a mostly metal frame. The blades themselves utilize a folding design that means you can fly this into the wall, ceiling, floor, etc. without much worry about damaging it. I've run it into the wall and other objects many times and even though the blades start striking the wall and the helicopter falls to the ground I have yet to damage it. Many times it will fall down and land upright so I can just crank it up from the remote again and start flying without even having to touch it! The helicopter uses an infrared remote control rather than radio, but surprisingly this works great inside. I can only guess that the remote puts out a very bright and wide angle infrared signal because it will even work if the helicopter is around corners or if the remove is behind an object. While flying you have three controls: - The left stick moves only up and down and does not automatically reset itself. This is used to control the speed of the helicopter blades, which in turn determine the altitude that your helicopter will fly at. Since you can take your finger off the left stick and it will remain in place you are able to get the helicopter to a hovering altitude and leave it there "hands-free". - The right stick moves both up and down and left and right. Moving it left and right changes the speed at which the counter-rotating main blades spin, thus causing the helicopter to turn left or right. Moving the stick up and down causes the helicopter to pitch forward or backwards (by using a smaller propeller at the tail of the helicopter). When the helicopter is pitched forward it causes the main blades to then propel the whole helicopter forward. The reverse is true when you have it pitched backwards. The remote control unit takes four AA batteries. The helicopter itself has a built in lithium battery that can be recharged either through the included USB cable or via a small cable that pulls out of the bottom of the remote control. I recommend charging the helicopter using the USB cable when possible so you can prolong the life of the batteries you have in your remote control. I actually just connect the USB cable to a standard iPhone charger and charge the helicopter that way. A nice feature of the USB cable is that it has a light that lights up when the helicopter is fully charged so you know it's ready to go. Charging time is somewhere around an hour and provides you with about seven to nine minutes of flight. When the battery starts running low the helicopter simply won't fly as high. Even when you have the blade speed maxxed out you'll notice that the helicopter will slowly start drifting downward until eventually it won't have enough power to even lift off the floor. I'm in my thirties and have this little guy sitting on my desk in my home office. It's a great little toy to fly around for a few minutes as a break! If you've always wanted a little helicopter but don't have the time or the drive to mess around with the big models then get this! It provides great straight out of the box fun and the price is right!

Very happy with this purchase. It arrived before the promised date and the machine itself is great fun, and very tough (still flying despite multiple crashes). Had to go on the internet to get some tips on flying. In particular, it will not launch slowly (it just skids sideways and crashes), but needs a good push of the throttle to get it off the ground. And once in the air, it takes a while (at least it took me a while) to develop the right instincts in terms of using the two control toggles. Also, be warned that if there is sunlight in the room, it crashes. Overall, highly recommended.

Great helicopter toy...Very accurate flight which makes the short battery life to be worth it. You enjoy a 15 min flight so much that you have enough until it recharges.

Arrived as advertyised. Flew very well and stable indoors. I balanced front to back with slight adjustment of tail fin position along boom and got vertical lift off and descent. Battery has been excellent and even seems to have increased flight times with careful handling - 15 minute cool down, charge off USB exactly 52 minutes, remove on time so no overcharge.

Didn't last long

This little helicopter is really amazing, I can't believe the level of control you can have with it, especially considering the price. Awesome purchase.