Hi LtV,

My younger brother is in iraq right now.
If the iraquies are not technical enough to have equipment that senses where the radio signals are coming from or jamming all frequencies, then I think these helis are CHEAP enough for you to do covert ops.

I agree with everyone here...a gust of wind will blow these micros around! Its like a peice of paper being caught in the wind...

As you probably found out...there are cameras with builtin TX available which are DIRT cheap $79 complete RX&TX(military standard)
see http://www.raidentech.com/raidentech168/miwispyca.html
and are small enough for these helis to carry...though there is only a 1000' feet MAX line of sight range.

The restriction however is in the stock RC recievers...I beleive the range on these radio gear(stock) are only 300' to 500'. Not much..... You can get larger hobby RX and can go up to 1500'. Some claim 1 mile at line of sight.


I think some of the guys here may be confused at the draganflyer heli you mentioned(as I made the mistake before). The micro-level helis out there are (in the market):
[sorry if this is repeat info]

1. Draganflyer for about $750
Picture at: http://www.rctoys.com/draganflyer3.php

2. GWS or FEDA Mini Dragonfly ~$300

3. Hummingbird ~$300

4. Aerohawk or Skylark ~$300

5. Piccollo ~$400

6. MS Hornet ~$400-500

Prices are in USD and are approximate for COMPLETE HELI's with Radio and battery. You'll definitely need Lithium-polymer batteries(Li-Po) for long runtimes(20-40 minutes, average is 20minutes)

The Draganflyer(#1 above) is a 4 motor micro saucer. The rest(#2 through #6) are the conventional helicopter design in micro form.

My opinion of it all is that the Draganflyer has more CRITICAL parts to go wrong...(but I'm not sure how much more it can lift compared to the others)

The rest of the helis have two motors(one for main rotor, one for tail rotor), lots of parts available by lots of small vendors/distributors.



Hope this helps...