Syma S111G 3.5 Channel RC Helicopter with Gyro

I will preface this review by saying that this is the first time I have felt compelled to leave a review on Amazon, although I buy stuff from them all the time. Only after a year of moderate to heavy use with 5 different models do I feel that I have enough evidence to support such a strong recommendation. My experience with Syma helicopters started when my wife got me a Syma S109G for Christmas last year. I've had some toy R/C helicopters before and none of them were very rewarding, so I wasn't expecting to be so surprised. These gyro-based helicopters (note the important letter 'G' at the end of the model name) are amazingly stable in flight. They are REDICULOUSLY FUN. Within a few flights, I had the helicopter landing and taking off from a shoebox. My favorite challenge is to pick an object in the house to land on, or to fly a circuit around the house. I live at high altitude (7000 ft), so my flight times are not as long as they would be at sea level, but I still typically get several minutes of flight. What is great is that they charge off of any USB port within a handful of minutes. I repeatedly tell my wife that this present was truly brilliant. After a few weeks, I wanted more, so I bought this S111G. It was even better, only because the lights are multicolored and change color. These helicopters are surprisingly true to the real full scale version for their price. I found myself comparing the details to pictures of the real thing online, just to find the subtle distinctions which are few and far between. I became an addict, since they are so reasonably priced. At this point I have 5 different Syma helicopters and they are all fun to fly. I have a shelf in my house as a dedicated 'hangar' for my fleet. Each one of them has slightly different flight characteristics and endurance, which make them all slightly different to fly (although all of them are consistently easy to fly). My guess is that the differences in endurance is mostly due to manufacturing variation in the battery capacity. I will say that the S022 Chinook has a very brief flight time (<1 minute), though I'm not sure if that's due to the double rotor or a weak battery. My S107G also has a short flight time (~1 minute), which could be due to the heavier metal structure or a weak battery. I also bought 1 of the Viefly gyro heli's - the 331. The Viefly is not nearly as realistic. Also, it is a bit smaller and has a little too much power which makes it more difficult to control, although on the flip side it does last a bit longer. Don't get me wrong, I still like the Viefly alot, but I personally prefer the Symas. Besides the great flight characteristics, the S109G comes with an additional bonus - some classic Chinglish on the rotor blades: "If blade damage, don't be fly, otherwise it will create the human body or blame damage". I kid you not. That is classic and still puts a smile on my face a year later. None of the other models have quite such good distortions of English. But that warning does bring up another discussion point - reliability. Now, after nearly a year of flying 5 models and crashing them over and over and over again from heights as high as 20 feet, they all still fly like new. Even battery life still seems about like when I bought them. Sure, some of the blades do have significant nicks on their leading edge, but they all fly fine, and I haven't created the human body or blame damage. There are replacement blades on Amazon, but I haven't needed any yet. It looks like some of the blades may be interchangable among models, but I haven't had a need to try yet. In summary, for under $30, these are rediculously fun, easy to maneuver, reliable little heli's. Besides my own collection, I've now given 3 away as gifts to relatives. They are not perfect, and might be a little hit or miss, but in general I can whole-heartedly recommend them to anyone interested in R/C flight indoors.

I have three RC copters now. This one is my new favorite! Looks great and flies easily. The other SYMA I have is the Apache which also looks great and flies well. I like the bright colors of this one and the blades are also white in color. Has a small LED light located at the front of the nose and also one in the front above the helicopter's windshield that turns from red to blue and also one on the underside, rear that turns from red to blue. They look really nice when flying this. It charged in about 50 minutes just like my other Apache from SYMA. I can tell it's durable for what it's worth. Nicely detailed and fun to fly. Seriously I never dreamed I'd enjoy these little copters so much and I intend to purchase a few more when I see one that catches my eye. For $23 it's well worth it! I fly mine inside the house where there's no breeze. My first helicopter I got was for Christmas and my wife paid around $80. In it's defense it is a 2.4 Gig band helicopter and has a larger range for flying. Might be getting the Chinook next. Get them now before it's too late. Last year after October they were sold out it seemed. Flying time was about 8 minutes or more. Seemed to last longer on it's second flight but trust me, that's long enough. Just allow for it to sit after flying for a few minute before recharging. That's why you should get 2 or more. I can fly 3 now back to back. Amazon is the place for getting these. Look for FREE super saver shipping and if you have to join then it's well worth it if you order things throughout the year. Now without any doubts order yourself one!,,,, For the price and fun factor you won't be disappointed. One more thing. I use my electric charger from my Apple Itouch to charge it sometimes. The USB plugs in it and the voltage isn't too much for the copter. Doesn't seem to charge any faster but just in case you wanted another way to charge it without using the controller or USB to a computer. You can buy an electric adapter though extra and that might be a good idea, depending on your interest. The plug going into the heicopter is very small so make sure you get it right before pushing too hard for it to go in. I marked the top side of mine with a black magic marker so I'll do it right everytime.

Flies super stable, so much so that I let my 9 year old fly it almost immediately after opening it. Now all 3 kids (2 girls) love flying this thing. It is super easy to fly, even still, we do manage to wreck it into a lot of obstacles, since we try flying it around and through most anything and land it almost anywhere in the house. The helicopter is super tough. The blades on ours are dinged up a bit, but that is all after some serious abuse, and it still flies impeccably. Couple of annoyances: Our USB charger does not work, but the charger on the transmitter works great. The batteries in the transmitter had a little white powder on them when we went to change them, and do not know if this is because of the transmitter or bad batteries to begin with. I just took caution when replacing them and told the kids to let me change the batteries next time to see if it happens again and for safety reasons. I loved this thing so much, I decided to order another helicopter, but chose the Chinook (small version) because I wanted something different. Big mistake. The chinook did not keep altitude, and I have sent it back. I will probably order another one of these or 102g (blackhawk) version.

The transmitter doesn’t work. Left a question two days ago still waiting for a reply. Left me with a disappointed birthday boy and $60 less in pocket:(

Excellent model but a couple details omitted which would have put it over the top: white window frames on the front and upper windows and blackened rearmost windows. Other than that really well done.

Very quick delivery. Flew like a dream, hovers well and as such makes for an easy learning curve. We did encounter a small glitch which thankfully we were able to correct. That glitch was a poor soldering connection at the battery. We did remove the outer casing which the ordinary loayman might not be capable of doing as this is ultra miniature work. Once problem was corrected we are in the air again.

I have 2 Syma helicopters, one that looks like an Apache and this one which has now been recycled. The helicopter would always lose power in mid flight and fly either into a person, or something else. This was not user error, simply a lose of power that I cannot explain. Syma make a great product so maybe I had the lemon of the batch.

The helicopter worked well at first, but quickly broke. I was dissapointed in the quality.