Last year, we got our 9-yo a Blade CX2 Helicopter. I research things to death before I buy them. I bought the CX2 essentially for both him and me. I wanted a hobby quality Heli that was easy to fly and that neither of us would 'grow out of' any time soon. The CX2 turned out to be fun for a very short time, but ended up being just too fragile for us beginner flyers and has been a costly investment in replacement parts (an time tinkering with it!) And now I can't get it adjusted to fly right (very temperamental) but that may be because I installed the aftermarket collapsible blades (got tired of breaking blades.) I'm sure with some more patience and practice we'll eventually get it running properly again, but what a time consumer! But that's another thread.

For now, we have another Christmas arriving, and my 11-yo, as usual, is prepared to ask Santa for things that I know he would quickly grow bored of and/or I can't afford, like a Razor Battery Powered Go-Kart!

So I was browsing around Amazon's R/C dept and ran across the ParkZone Vapor. What a neat concept. Our home is rather large. The kitchen, informal dining area, and family room all form one big open space where the family room is about 30' wide x 25' and then it narrows to about 20' then to about 15' in the kitchen so we have an average area about 20' x 60' to fly in with 10' ceilings (15' in part of the family room) and a ping pong table for landing and take-off! We also have a large open hallway from that area to the dining room and living room with 10' wide openings between the rooms and 20' high ceilings in part of the hallway and the living room. Seems like a space perfect for a Vapor?

My main concern is that maybe we are better off with an Ember 2 as I've watch videos of the Vapor and it is very slow (good for indoors though) and can easily be pushed around with even slight breezes out in the yard. But on the other hand I'd be concerned the Ember 2 will be too difficult for a beginner to fly indoors and we will end up repairing the thing all the time like we did with the CX2 heli. My gut is telling me the slower plane is better for beginner indoor flying and due to the slow speed and lighter weight means less of a chance of breaking. Maybe the best route is get the Vapor, then when he gets good at flying maybe he can skip the Ember and get something faster, more suitable for outdoor flight so he'll have the Vapor for indoor and ???? for outdoor. I'm not made of money though. If the difficulty of indoor flight between the Vapor and Ember is negligible, then seems like the Ember could be a better choice?

The great thing is, I just read we can use our CX2 controller with the Vapor! Hurray!

Any recommendations regarding which to get now, and which to get as a 'step-up' later, and also any accessory/parts we should get with it is GREATLY APPRECIATED.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Your assumptions are correct. The Vapor will be great for indoors, the Ember 2 will be a little too big for that.

They will be fairly equal in ease of flying, but you'll need a VERY calm day to fly the Ember 2, where you can fly the Vapor indoors anytime

Get the Vapor

Thanks for confirming my suspicions. Should I order some extra parts like a couple blades, or landing gear or anything for the Vapor? Is the battery the same size as the CX2 Heli?

The batteries ar the same, and get a couple of blades. Landing gear is a maybe, you really don't need it indoors. If you brake one just hand lanuch. Dennis

It may not look it but the Vapor is surprisingly tough. I might get a couple props but that's it.