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.

The SYMA S111G Coast Guard style Helicopter is a marvelous mechanism! I highly recommend it. I have included a vid of how easily it hovers. Enjoy! I have played with this "toy" inside and outside (more on that later). The SYMA S111G flies like a dream. The chopper hovers so well that my wife thought that I had it hanging from a string it was so steady in the house. That isn't all it will do. The SYMA S111G travels a straight course forwards and backwards without too much effort or "real" flying skills needed. (more on that later). How does it look? It has a hard plastic body that isn't spongy feeling. It looks very authentic in detail and it would look very nice sitting on a shelf. It doesn't have landing skids like the typical helicopter, but rather it has a three wheel tripod under carriage that supports the craft. It has a "fake" rotor as well as as a functional motorized rotor. There are so many lights on it that it is very visible in a darkened room, which also helps to orient the pilot as to which direction the craft is pointing toward. How does it fly? (inside) As I stated earlier, it hovers so efficiently that the pilot,can practice hovering techniques such as squares, figure eights or ovals without constantly trying to correct for a pendulum effect. It is fast enough to smash into a wall if you aren't careful. A ceiling fan will confound your efforts at being a competent pilot. Also, if your fans are pulling air upwards, it will also pull up the helicopter as easily. That said, the durability of the copter is excellent. The helicopter doesn't have the capabilities of a four channel helicopter, in that it cannot travel sideways or revolve like the Blade MCX2 coaxial helicopter, but the S111G is only 3 channels. How does it fly? (outside) If you are tired of owning your SYMA S111G take it outside on a faintly breezy day and wave goodbye. A couple of things likely will occur. 1. the infrared receiver will be tricked by too much sunlight... and it will unexpectedly fall from a height, into the road and end of helicopter because it just got run over by Billy Bob and his Stomper truck. or 2. the breeze will carry it far, far away never to be seen again. This copter does not tolerate air currents well. But, you're gonna do it anyway. Ha,ha,ha... 3. you will be lucky and get to fly another day. Battery life and charging cycle is superior as well. The charger is 120volt and charges the battery in about 10 minutes. So, I get about eight minutes of fun flying to 10 minutes of charging cycle. Let the battery cool first before charging, say about five minutes. Overall opinion. I would recommend buying it. Looks nice. Durable. Good performance for the price. About me and why my opinion counts. I am a former Marine pilot and then I was a Navy Seal. Oh, I also was an Executive for a MultiCorp... just kidding. Just a irregular guy. I started out with a TREX 450 helicopter. TOTAL disaster! Then..., I got an ESKY HONEYBEE CPX. More disastrous fun. Then..., I got a Viefly 268. I totally crashed all of these! The Viefly 268 still flys. A testament to that crafts durability. The TREX is in the process of being repaired by me. The HONEYBEE looks like it has been through a war but it still will fly, but I cannot fly it. I now fly coaxial, or dual blade type helis. A Blade MCX2. A SYMA S111g. A VIEFLY 268. and a SYMA S032.(I have owned two S032 helicopters. They do not fly well in breezes either even though the ad copy says they do. see #2 above) 3 Channel RC Military Gyro Mini Indoor Helicopter Viefly V268 Blade mCX2 BNF 3.5-Ch Metal Outdoor RC Helicopter S032

The S111G is a pretty cool little bird that would be great as a first time rc helicopter for just about any one. It is easy to to fly, fairly rugged, and it looks cool. What I like most about it is that you can charge it through a computer, which saves battery life, but it takes around an hour to fully charge it whether using the remote or a computer. After it's fully charged you might get 6-7 minutes of continual flight time out of it before you need to recharge, which is about an average flight for whatever introductory level rc chopper, so keep that in mind before you buy one. You'll be charging batteries way more than flying. Another thing to seriously consider is purchasing replacement parts along with the helicopter because you may need them sooner than you think. This particular rc helicopter is fairly rugged, but there is only so much it can take before the rotors are too damaged to fly anymore. I have flown it maybe a total of 20 hours on the original parts, but I have only had a few crashes, and even these four or five crashes have damaged the propellers a little. To delay further damage I used clear tape to provide a little extra ruggedness to the rotors and that seems to really work well.

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.