Syma S026G R/C Chinook Coaxial Tandem Helicopter, retail $29.99 (www.symatoys.com...)
Manufactured by Syma Toys (www.symatoys.com)
Last updated 10-19-12
This isn't a flashlight, household lamp, Christmas light set, or other thing that glows, but it *DOES* have some lights on it, so what the hey.
This is only the thirteenth 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. I was also attracted to something about this heli thaty none of the others in my arsenal have: it's a tandem copter -- that is, it has not one, but TWO sets of main rotor blades.
This is the Syma S026G R/C Chinook Coaxial Tandem Helicopter. It's called a "tandem" because instead of a large main rotor and a small tail rotor like most other helicopters have, this one has TWO sets of the large "main" rotor blades: one near the front where you might expect, and one at the rear, mounted up slightly higher than the front ones so that the rotopr blades don't smack into one another.
It has a coaxial design to minimise those "out-of-control" moments.
"Coaxial" in this case means that it has two sets of main rotor blades (on each shaft; four sets of blades in total); 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!!! It also has a gyroscope (very commonly abbreviated to just "gyro") in it that makes this heli exceptionally stable and lets slow-speed maneuvers and hovering be accomplished much more easily than it would be in R/C helis without a gyro.
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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 last night).
1: On the underside of the Chinook's body, there's a rather miniscule on/off switch.
Slide this switch to the "on" position.
An RGB LED should now come on and start putting on a little light show (a video farther down this web page shows this).
Place the heli on the floor so that the tail faces you. A yellow LED behind the charging port will go from rapidly flashing to steady-on when the gyro has stabilised.
Move several feet away from the helicopter (at least six feet away).
2: On the remote control, turn the "on/off" switch to the "on" position.
3: If the yellow LED on the remote is flashing, 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.
4: The Chinook 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 Chinook and remote control off when finished using them.
Same switches as before, but slide them in the opposite direction this time.
* Although it is stated in the instructional materials that the controller must be "armed" in this fashion, it is not necessary to do it with this particular unit -- actually, it did need to be done, but only once. As usual, your mileage may vary.
The battery in the Chinook 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 a small phillips screwdriver (the #0 from my set of jeweller's screwdrivers worked well here). Set the screw aside.
Remove the battery door, carry it to the top of the basement stairs, and kick it down those stairs into the basement crawling with thousands of hungry piss ants that have to piddle -- they'll think it's something yummy to eat and start chewing on it, but quickly find it unpalatable so that they drag it to the queen, who also finds it distasteful so she piddles on it and instructs the worker ants to do the same...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 down the stairs to all those hungry, hungry piss ants with full bladders now?
To charge the battery in the Chinook Helicopter via the USB dongle, take the thin cord that comes furnished with the product, and note that one end has a small rectangular plug on it, Plug this into the female receptacle for it on the underside of the helicopter, in the same general area as the "ON/OFF" switch. The side of this small plug with two tiny metal contacts visible on it should face toward the tail of this heli when you're plugging it in.
Be certain that the Chinook is turned off at this point.
Plug the larger, flat, rectangular end of this cord into any free USB port on your computer.
When the charge cycle is in progress, the red LED inside the rectangular USB plug on the end of the charging cord will stay off; it will become illuminated when the charge cycle is complete.
You may then safely unplug the helicopter from the charger, and unplug the USB plug from your computer at this point.
To charge the battery in this heli via its remote control, slide the door on the lower portion of the left side of the remote control so it's open.
In the compartment you just exposed to atmosphere , you'll see a thin cord with a small plug on the end.
With the helicopter turned off, plug this into the female receptacle for it on the underside of the helicopter, in the same general area as the "ON/OFF" switch. The side of this small plug with two tiny metal contacts visible on it should face toward the tail of this heli when you're plugging it in.
This connector is keyed to fit the receptacle on the Chinook only one way; please do not force it or you may irreversibly damage this heli that flies so well and it might not fly for you again.
Turn the switch on the remote control to the "on" position. The LED on the remote should now come on and be glowing an orangish color (the yellow and red dice should be on at once now).
When the charge cycle is complete, this LED will turn color from orange to yellow. At this time, you may unplug the cord from the heli's body, turn the remote control off, stow the cord in the compartment on the remote that you originally removed it from, and slide that door closed.
Fully charging the Chinook's battery (stated as 50 to 60 minutes; this is very likely with a battery that is totally "flat" and when using the USB dongle) should give you ~6 minutes of flying time.
This RC helicopter is meant to be used as a toy in a dry area outdoors (or in a large open room indoors), not as a flashlight meant to be carried around all the time, thrashed, and abused; so I won't throw it against the wall, stomp on it, try to drown it in the {vulgar slang term for caca}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 RC is 8 meters (~24 feet).
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.
The only thing that pisses me off (even a little) about this helicopter is that you have to lay it on its side to charge its battery, since its charging port is on its undercarriage. But this is rather nitpicky in the grand scheme of things because it flies so well.
Photograph of its remote control.
Spectrographic analysis of the RGB LED on the underside of the heli's fuselage* (body).
Spectrographic analysis of the yellow "Gyro stabilised" LED in the helicopter's fuselage.
This LED really is dim; I had no positioning issues with the spectrometer this time.
Spectrographic analysis of the red LED in the USB charging dongle.
Spectrographic analysis of the yellow "Power" die of the bicolor LED in the helicopter's remote control.
Spectrographic analysis of the red & yellow "Charge cycle in progress" dice of the bicolor LED in the helicopter's remote control cum battery charger.
Video showing the RGB LED on the underside of the Syma S026G R/C Chinook Tandem Coaxial Helicopter.
This video is approximately 3.99763464376 megabytes (4,116,210 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than sixty two minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.
Video showing the maiden flight of the Syma S026G R/C Chinook Tandem Coaxial Helicopter.
I've never flown a tandem before, that's why it had a kind of rough landing off-camera at the end of this video.
This video is approximately 15.28568945656 megabytes (15,573,394 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than sixty two minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.
Video on YourTube showing how the red LED in the USB charging dongle for Syma micro helicopters slowly brightens instead of just turning on at full intensity immediately upon completion of the charge cycle.
O BOY! A RED LIGHT SLOWLY BRIGHTENING!! SO THRILLING!!! MAKES YOUR HEART RACE, DOESN'T IT?!? (Actually, it makes you want to whack somebody's pee-pee, doesn't it?)
That music you hear is music from the pee-cee computer demo "Verses" by the demo group ''Electromotive Force [EMF]''; this product is not sound-sensitive -- the audio may be ignored or even muted if it tees you off...though I'd recommend not doing so as this video is kind of boring without it.
This video is approximately 9.77845642361 megabytes (9,864,523 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than forty eight minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.
I cannot provide these videos in other formats, so please do not ask.
ALL OF THE OTHER VIDEOS NOW HAVE THEIR OWN WEB PAGE BECAUSE THERE ARE JUST TOO MANY OF THEM AT THIS TIME!!!
TEST NOTES:
Test unit was purchased on Ebay (from Superstition Hobbies) on 05-06-11 (or "06 May 2011" or even "May 06, Twenty Double Sticks" if you prefer), and was received at 3:54pm PDT on 05-09-11 (or "09 May 2011" or even "May 09, Twenty Double Sticks").
UPDATE: 10-19-12
From bigfathairybiker on YouTube comes the following (no changes to grammar, syntax, or spelling were made):
"Hmmm... one thing to note about the Syma USB Charger is that it has no LiPo charging circuit inside! It is just a diode and resistor to supply the charge current and a transistor and a couple of other resistors to switch the? led on as the current supplied goes down. Which is why the led is on full brightness when no battery is connected.
The LiPo charger circuit is on the battery!"
MANUFACTURER: Syma
PRODUCT TYPE: Small-sized R/C tandem helicopter
LAMP TYPE: LED
No. OF LAMPS: 17 (1 yellow in R/C, 1 bicolor in charger, 15 in helicopter itself)
BEAM TYPE: N/A
SWITCH TYPE: Slide switch on/off on both R/C and helicopter
CASE MATERIAL: Plastic & metal
BEZEL: N/A
BATTERY: 6x AA cells for R/C; 210mAh 3.7V Li:PO battery in helicopter
CURRENT CONSUMPTION: Unknown/unable to measure
WATER- AND URANATION-RESISTANT: Very light sprinkle-resistance only
SUBMERSIBLE: ¡¡¡PARA LOS MOTIVOS NO DE CRISTO!!!
ACCESSORIES: USB charging dongle, rotor blades
SIZE: 9.50cm L x 19cm Rotor diameter
WEIGHT: Unknown/not equipped to weigh
COUNTRY OF MANUFACTURE: China
WARRANTY: Unknown/not stated
PRODUCT RATING:
Syma S026G R/C Chinook *
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