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METAL SERIES
33cm R/C COAXIAL HELICOPTER
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You have no chance to survive make your time.

Metal Series 33cm R/C Coaxial Helicopter, retail $36.25
Manufactured by (Unknown)
Last updated 06-14-11

This isn't a flashlight, household lamp, Christmas light set, or other thing that glows, but it *DOES* have a flashing RGB LED in it, so what the hey.

This is only the tenth R/C helicopter to have graced these pages (out of at least a thousand other products) over the last eleven-plus years this website has been online, so please play nice and don't bite my head off to tell me that I forgot some important detail.

I love things that fly; that's why I took the bate (I saw it on Ebay not that long ago) and also why I added a seperate section titled "PRODUCTS DESIGNED TO FLY" on my website a number of years ago.

This is a fairly small, lightweight (as a helicopter in a metal & plastic body goes), easy-to-fly 3-channel radio-controlled helicoper. Although the Ebay listing indicated that this helicopter could be flown indoors, I really wouldn't recommend doing so -- at least not until you've become somewhat experienced with its flight characteristics and then only if you have a rather large, open room at your disposal in which to fly it in.

It has a coaxial design to minimise those "out-of-control" moments, and make flying possible even with a busted tail rotor (though if the tail rotor is completely gone, moving forward & backward will no longer be possible).
"Coaxial" in this case means that it has two sets of main rotor blades; one set of blades spins in the opposite direction as the other. Doing things this way virtually eliminates that wild, out-of-control spinning that plagues many other non-coaxial R/C helicopters and makes this one exceptionally easy to fly even for beginner pilots!!!

Size of product w/hand to show scale

SIZE

This toy is remarkably easy to use for a helicopter...here's how to get it off the ground:

As with any rechargeable product, charge it first (see directly below), and then you can pretend to fly a dragonfly (well, that's what the kitty cat thought it was when I flew it in the house the other day).

1: On the underside of the Coaxial Helicopter's body, there's a tiny on/off switch.
Use a fingernail to slide this switch to the "on" position.
A flashing RGB LED in the Coaxial Helicopter's cockpit will now come on, and then begin giving you a little light show. A video farther down this web pages shows this.

2: On the remote control, turn the "on/off" switch to the "on" position.

3: Place the Coaxial Helicopter on a flat surface; the floor is a good place. Orient it so the tail faces toward you.

4: Extend the antenna on the remote if you haven't already done so. Push the left-hand stick on the remote control forward and then let it go back. This "arms" the helicopter. Gently push the left-hand stick on the remote control forward a second time -- but do so more gingerly this time so that the helicopter doesn't just blast away -- it has a good deal of thrust, so the possibility of it getting away in this manner does exist.

5: The Coaxial Helicopter should now lift off the ground. Congratulations, you're now a pilot!!!

Reading this web page (about another R/C helicopter) will give you a good idea of the process of flying it.
For additional instructions & tips on how to fly, please read the instructional material that comes with the product.

Turn the Coaxial Helicopter and remote control off when finished using them.
Same switches as before, but slide them in the opposite direction this time.

The battery in the Coaxial Helicopter itself is rechargeable and is not designed to be changed; however the batteries in the remote will need to be changed from time to time.

To do this, unscrew & remove the phillips screw from the battery door on the underside of the unit, using the phillips screwdriver that comes furnished with the unit. Set the screw aside.

Remove the battery door, very gently place it on the ground, and kick it into the garden so the hungry, hungry praying mantids will think it's something yummy to eat and strike at it...O WAIT!!! YOU'LL NEED THAT!!! So just set it aside instead.

Remove the six used AA cells from the compartment, and dispose of or recycle them as you see fit.

Insert six new AA cells into the compartment, orienting each cell so its flat-end (-) negative faces a spring for it in each chamber.

Finally, place the battery door back on, and screw the screw back in.
Aren't you glad you didn't kick that battery door into the garden with all those hungry, hungry praying mantids now?

Here is what a praying mantis looks like.
I found this guy on the morning of 09-08-06 clinging to the basket of my scooter.

To charge the battery in the Coaxial Helicopter, take the thin cord that comes furnished with the product, and note that one end has a small round thing with an even smaller metal plug on it, Plug this into the female receptacle for it on the underside of the helicopter, right next to the "ON/OFF" switch.

Be certain that the Coaxial Helicopter is turned off at this point.

There are two ways you can proceed at this time...

Plug the larger, flat, rectangular end of this cord into any free USB port on your computer.
Plug this into the receptacle for it on the wall charger.

If you're using the wall charger, plug it into any convenient 110 to 240 volts AC 50 or 60Hz two or three slot household wall receptacle (or "wall outlet" or even "wall socket" if you prefer). The charger comes equipped with two round prongs intended for use in Europe; a plug adapter for US outlets should be present in the package -- fit this to the charger's plug first if you're using it in north America.

When the charge cycle is in progress, a red LED on the underside of the rectangular USB plug on the end of the charging cord will be illuminated. When it turns off, the charge cycle is complete: you may then safely unplug the helicopter from the charger, and unplug the wall charger from the wall receptacle if that's what you charged the battery with.

Fully charging the Coaxial Helicopter's battery should give you ~12-14 minutes of flying time.

This RC helicopter is meant to be used as a toy in a dry area outdoors, not as a flashlight meant to be carried around all the time, thrashed, and abused; I won't throw it against the wall, stomp on it, try to drown it in the {vulgar term for feces}bowl or the cistern, run over it, swing it against the concrete floor of a patio, bash it open to check it for candiosity, fire it from the cannoñata (I guess I've been watching the TV program "Viva Piñata" too much again

- candiosity is usually checked with a scanner-type device on a platform with a large readout, with a handheld wand that Langston Lickatoad uses, or with a pack-of-cards-sized device that Fergy Fudgehog uses; and the cannoñata is only used to shoot piñatas to piñata parties away from picturesque Piñata Island), send it to the Daystrom Institute for additional analysis, or inflict upon it punishments that I might inflict upon a flashlight.

So this section of the helicopter's web page will be significantly more bare than this section of the web page on a page about a flashlight.

Stated range of the radio controller is 20 to 25 meters (~60 to ~75 feet); it operates at a frequency of 27.00MHz.

The unit has a 3-channel remote control; this allows for forward / backward / up / down / left / right movement (movement on all three axes -- X, Y, and Z). It also has a fully proportional control system; simply meaning that the motor speeds can be varied depending on how far you move the joysticks -- it isn't simply "full power and no power at all" like some other R/C products.

Photograph of its remote control.

Spectrographic analysis of the RGB LED in the helicopter's cocksu...er...uh...COCKPIT.

Spectrographic analysis of the red "Power" LED in the helicopter's remote control.

Spectrographic analysis of the LED in the USB charger for this product.

USB2000 spectrometer graciously donated by P.L.

A concatenation (combination) of four videos on YourTube
showing four rather brief indoor flights of this helicopter.

That music you might hear in the background is from the computer demo "Coma Demo" by Crack Rat of "The Brain Slayer". This product is not sound-sensitive; the audio may be ignored or even muted if it pisses you off.

This video also demonstrates why you should really fly this bird outdoors -- at least at first.

This video is approximately 2.73356435472 megabytes (2,899,399 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than fourteen minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.

A video on YourTube showing a rather craptacular outdoor flight of this helicopter.

I really do need a second person to keep the camera trained on the helicopter; however, I have to settle for mounting the camera on a tripod. :-P

I exchanged both sets of main rotor blades with the furnished spare ones, and will attempt another flight when it's not rainy and/or windy. Exchanging blades worked fantastically on the Havok Heli (even though no damage or deformation was evident with the rotor blades of that product), so I really have nothing to lose in this case.

This video is approximately 92.77742345803 megabytes (92,946,050 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than four hundred sixty three (!?!) minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.
This video is definitely ***NOT*** dial-up friendly!!!

A concatenation of three videos on YourTube showing some rather poor flights (well, the first flight was actually fairly successful!) of the Metal Series 33cm R/C Coaxial Helicopter. The product shoots up suddenly instead of having a true proportional response from the joystick on the remote; this is but one reason (albiet the primary one!) for the somewhat lousy flights. :-/

My next flight attempts will take place at the South County Ballfields in Federal Way WA. USA a bit later this year if we haven't moved by then. The ballfield location is more ideal because there are large open areas with no trees or structures to worry about getting stuck in (or on the rooftops of).

This video is approximately 2.27774538035 megabytes (2,489,905 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than eleven minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.

A concatenation (combination) of two videos on YourTube
showing the helicopter being "trimmed".

That music you might hear in the background is the song "Mind Machine" by Billy Squier". This product is not sound-sensitive; the audio may be ignored or even muted if it pisses you off.

This video is approximately 2.00834527638 megabytes (2,241,475 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than ten minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.

A video on YourTube showing the helicopter making a very brief indoor flight.
There was insufficent space here in which to execute a particular maneuver, so I had to intentionally allow the poor, innocent, defenseless little thing crash-land at the end of this clip.

This video is approximately 3.99834523582 megabytes (4,129,236 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than twenty minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.

A video on YourTube showing a second attempt at trimming this helicopter followed by a brief but successful indoor flight.

That music you might hear is the song "Cool the Engines" by Boston. This heli is not sound-sensitive; the audio may safely be ignored or even muted if it pisses you off.

This video is approximately 15.68884523460 megabytes (15,718,986 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than seventy seven minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.

A video on YourTube showing this helicopter lifting off from the floor and buzzing around for a short time before landing.

That music you might hear are the songs "Face of a Child" and "Thank You" by Worm Quartet. This heli is not sound-sensitive; the audio may safely be ignored or even muted if it pisses you off.

This video is approximately 7.15345234564 megabytes (7,382,358 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than thirty six minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.

Video on YourTube of a semi-successful outdoor flight of the Metal Series 33cm R/C Coaxial Helicopter.

This video is approximately 2.11523456346 megabytes (2,379,493 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than eleven minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.

A video showing another semi-successful outdoor flight (attempt) of the Metal Series 33cm R/C Coaxial Helicopter. It is rather far away during most of this video, so you do kinda have to look for it at times. :-/ Conditions at flight time were partly cloudy, temperature 47.0°F (8.3°C).

This video is approximately 2.67355686545 megabytes (2,838,979 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than thirteen minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.

A video on YouTube showing the flashing RGB LED in the cockpit of this helicopter.

This video is approximately 3.73327348023 megabytes (3,887,702 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than eighteen minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.

Video on YourTube showing *VERY BRIEF* indoor flights of five (5) R/C helis.

The copters in this video are (in order of their appearance): Metal Series 33cm R/C Coaxial Helicopter, Havok Heli, Havok Stinger (R/C helicopter), Syma S107G R/C Coaxial Helicopter, and Syma S031G R/C Coaxial Helicopter

This video is approximately 3.29965456459 megabytes (3,465,299 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than sixteen minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.

This video shows multiple, generally rather dismal flight attempts of the Metal Series 33cm R/C Coaxial Helicopter. I say "dismal" here because the battery will not sustain any type of flight for more than just over one minute, then the heli's power systems automatically shut down to protect the battery.

That music you may hear is zax from page 2 of the Commodore 64 demo "Mag Factor Three" that I wrote myself and released in mid-November 1992 (This demo can be run on your pee-cee if you install WinVice v1.19 {4,399,196 bytes} on it first). This heli is not sound-sensitive; the audio may safely be ignored or even muted if it torques you off.

This video is approximately 12.66057234562 megabytes (12,854,355 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than sixty three minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.

TEST NOTES:
Test unit was purchased on Ebay on 02-17-11 (or "17 Feb 2011" or even "Feb 17, Twenty Double Sticks" if you prefer), and was received on the afternoon of 02-28-11 (or "28 Feb 2011" or even "Feb 28, Twenty Double Sticks").

UPDATE: 03-06-11
After a particularly hard landing on 03-04-11 (or "04 Mar. 2011" if you prefer), the rear pylon for the starboard (right-hand) skid became broken; however this should be easily repairable with a few mg (milligrams) of cyanoacrylate adhesive (super glue or similar) -- so the helicopter isn't unusable by any means -- not by a long shot!!!

UPDATE: 03-07-11
Here is a photograph showing the damage to the rear starboard skid support pylon:

UPDATE: 03-07-11
No, you aren't seeing things.
Yes, a same-day update.
I found more minor damage; however, this damage will not affect flying characteristics, takeoffs, or landings -- so I do not consider it critical enough to repair it prior to my next flight like the damage to the skid support pylon.
Here is a photograph showing the newly-discovered damage:

Unknown/not stated

R/C helicopter

LED

At least 5 (1 red in both chargers, 2 red in R/C, 1 RGB in helicopter itself)

N/A

Slide switch on/off on both R/C and helicopter

Plastic & metal

N/A

6x AA cells for R/C; unknown capacity 3.7V Li:PO battery in helicopter

Unknown/unable to measure

Very light sprinkle-resistance only

FOR CHRIST SAKES NOOOOO!!!

Main rotor blades, tail rotor blade, sm. screwdriver, AC charger, US/Europe plug adapter, charging cord

330mm L x 184mm H

Unknown/not equipped to weigh

China

Unknown/not stated

Metal Series 33cm R/C Coaxial Helicopter *

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