During a trip to China, I noticed how sturdy and stable 3ch (and "3.5ch") "toy" helis have become.  People who travelled with me came back with 3 helis in total, including a fairly big one which can even be flown outside in mild winds !

You can see a heli being dropped from a height and then being flown again without even being "stood-up" again at 0:21 and 3:55, someone standing on a heli at 1:25 and that same heli flying at 3:32 at my request.  There is also the canopy of a heli being kicked and stomped on starting around 2:00.

And I missed recording the part where they showed me how they bend the blades and landing skids 180degrees, and how they had a smaller helis blades hit its own transmitter many many times by holding the heli close to the TX for many seconds at a time.

One issue with them is that compared to regular mode 2, rudder control is where aileron control should be, so there would be some "unlearning" when you move on to a 4ch heli.

They were selling well also, with a lot of local Chinese buying them.  I also saw people buying them in bulk, like 3 of one size, 4 of a smaller size etc all bundled up together !

did you manage to visit the shenzhen helis smack down that happened recently?..

Nope, this was a business trip with only part of the time in China.  Spent the time trying to pick up a bit of Chinese language !

Quite good!!!  
Really stable compared to the other 3ch helis I have seen in videos.Did you get any?

Seriously.. These things are awesome.. How come all the Chinese helis we get here break up on the slightest impact? Maybe the seller has perfected the art of crashing them in such a way as to cause no damage About the standing on the heli part, the dude stands on the central metallic frame of the heli which is quite strong and is the part which never breaks in crashes.. had he been standing on any other part of the heli the result would have been drastically different.. Besides, the guy is almost as tall as the remote with its antenna extended.. How heavy can he be?? Chinese street sellers are famous for cheating people with their gimmicks.. For all you know that heli he stands on has some sort of reinforcement specially for demonstration purposes.. But if these helis are actually this strong its great news for people wanting to buy this stuff as the main problem has always been the durability (the lack of it) coupled with non availability of spares..  Why don't they come up with nice cheap 4-ch FP helis?

+1 for medicineman

Not in this case. I hung around the various stalls for an hour or so, and I have seen them do it (ie, stand on them) with fresh pieces which were sold to customers who demanded it (skeptics!). The abuse taken by the canopy also was quite remarkable. Of course he did not stand on the tail !

Also, they were dropping them from 6 to 10 feet heights all the time.  The blades are very very flexible, which can bend 180 degrees with a 3cm turning distance.  And the landing skids were being bent about 90 degrees in each direction. 

Most importantly, I don't think he could cheat so many of fellow countrymen that easily   In any case, feedback from the ones we brought back should clarify the real picture.

They did have 4 channel ones for about 75% additional price of the 3ch ones, but only small ones.  I guess 4 channel control requires servos, that is what I saw as the distinguishing factor.  They are a bit harder to fly, which might be another factor... as the target audience seems to be newbies.

Interesting stuff.Any chances they will send these to India?

We did not discuss that, but we have contacts there.  My colleagues might consider that possibility (for Qatar).

BTW, these are not street vendors.  They are established stores (more like factory outlets), who cannot run away for the next day !

The boats in the third picture are huge, with 26cc gas engines !

In that case this is great news! Hopefully these will start landing in India soon.. Can't they make 4-ch co-axials which are easy to fly?

Yep, as I mentioned above, they have 4ch ones, all the ones I saw were small.  I guess the bigger ones would be a bit more expensive, and was not the target audience.  I forgot to ask them if the factory itself makes bigger 4-ch ones purely for export, but that can be confirmed remotely too.

There are some 4-ch ones with props on either side of the heli pointing downwards to control the "roll" axis.. I wonder how much more expensive servo controlled ones will be over this type of helis considering they won't require the tail and side rotors anymore.. Here is another interesting one.. http://www.enjoyhobbies.biz/rc-toys/5889-56cm-2-4ghz-4ch-alloy-rc-helicopter-gyro-rtf VC sir had posted it somewhere earlier..

iam still not getting the hang of coaxials. after flying my cousin's heli for few times, its still hard to get away from the wall, when the heli is approaching side was to it. 4+ ch are the best!

Another coaxial non servo 4ch heli.

http://www.xheli.com/z008-miniheli-red.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqbZ5fbEVMs&feature=player_embedded#!

lol

Hehe, who knows some day they really may be able to fire something like that! 

Nice video Isn't that heli with the side rotors a 4-ch heli??

ya

But in the video its described as 3-ch micro heli..

Quote from: medicineman1987 on January 16, 2011, 10:31:08 AM
How heavy can he be??

Even if he is a lil over 30 KG, its like keeping a full gas cylinder on it!