Model Forum / Radio Controlled / Helicopters / March 2005

Hi Stryder

I'm currently flying a Walkera Dragonfly #4. My honey bought it for me,
to see if I'd like flying helis. So far I am happy with it, particularly
since I only paid $80 USD plus S&H.

Repair costs so far, all due to pilot error:
- $50 for replacement RX/Mixer board
- 4x $10 for replacement tail rotors (a tip here: lengthen the support
strut on the tail boom, so the tail rotor is further from the ground, or
use training gear... I didn't use any training gear)
- $12 burnt out tail motor
- Probably soon new tail gear, it looks like it's about to strip...

Upgrades:
- 2100 mAh LiPo (increased flight time from around 5 minutes to over 30
minutes)
- Charger for LiPo, plus 12V power converter for charger

Unfixed damages:
- Both landing gear skids broke off. Fixed it by wrapping plastic cable
tie around the skid and taping it to the support struts. Works so far.

The good:
- it seems pretty indestructible. Some of the crashes I thought for sure
 would have wrecked the little bugger.
- Comes with everything you need, including battery chargers and all.
Does need 8 AA batteries for the TX though.
- Dirt cheap
- If you're lucky you can get spare parts locally (one of the local
hobby shops here has GWS Dragonfly parts, they work for many things)

The bad:
- It is very very unstable in flight, but manageable with patience
- Not very good for indoors unless you have fairly large rooms (say,
bigger than a 15'x15' (5m x 5m) square to practice in
- Very sensitive to wind. Forget flying outside even in a light breeze
- Altitude control is difficult as the ESC steps aren't smooth enough
- No gyro/mixer adjustment possible (there is a little undocumented pot
in the receiver but I haven't braved messing with it yet)
- The tail rotor is a little bit weak. It holds/turns the tail, but only
barely. Might be the battery, no idea.
I'll probably save up to get Walkera's Zoom/Zap/Shogun clone (Walkera
#35, sometimes called Walkera 400) to practice some CP, this time WITH
training gear... and eventually I hope to save enough money for a bigger
electric bird like the upcoming Century or the Ion with decent
electronics - if I decide to stick with flying helis (watch out for
SCREAMING PINK helis with LACE TRIM... hehehe).

You definitely do get what you pay for. I didn't really expect it to be
that durable though. Or that hard to control - making it quite
challenging to learn heli flying on this bird. By now I can hover it
within a 3' x 3' square for a full battery pack, tail in. Side in I
still lose it every now and then, nose in as well.

For that price I'd buy it again - this time WITH kiddie skids though.
And I'd practice a lot more on the sim before, with the twitchiest heli
the sim has to offer :)

Hope this helps :)
J