Air Hogs Helix Helicopter
 

Hey guys, just wondering if any of you had the Air Hogs Helix Helicopter? I just bought one since I haven't been able to find a PiccoZ or a Gyrotor. It's charging right now, I'll post a review after a few flights.
Snit

RE: Air Hogs Helix Helicopter
 

WOW!!! I can't tell you how amazing this thing is!!! On my first charge, and never flying a helicopter before in my life, I was able to hover, control my direction easily, and land it where I wanted!!! The first couple take offs it would spin a little out of control, nothing bad, but not balanced properly. On top of the top rotor is a little knob, and you just turn it until it balances properly and then your set!!! It flies foward, back, left, and right with ease. The two little outboard motors provide excellent control! I was flying indoors so I wasn't able to really see how fast it would get going, but I imagine it could really get going with some room. Seriously, I've never seen something so cool in my life!!! Everyone go and buy one of these!!! I got mine for $50 at TRU.
Snit

RE: Air Hogs Helix Helicopter
 

That sounds really cool Snit. Can you post any pictures?

RE: Air Hogs Helix Helicopter
 

This is a picture I found online, mine is blue instead of yellow.

I'm going on my third flight now and I discovered a slight annoyance. I hit my knee with the rotor and it knocked one blade out of its slot, which was easy enough to repair but when I went to fly it again, it wasn't balanced and I had to mess with the little knob on top of the rotor again. I was able to balance the thing again simply enough, so nothing terrible, but annoying.

Snit

RE: Air Hogs Helix Helicopter
 

I put some weight in the middle on the body just above the back landing gear crossbar and when I finally got the right amount of weight, it flies in a small area indoors and is much easier to control. The weight is on with double stick tape and I simply remove it for outdoor flight. The best of both worlds.
John

RE: Air Hogs Helix Helicopter
 

I actually took the little wire ties that came with the Helix and wrapped them around the end of the tail boom. That seemed to give it just enough weight to balance it in the pitch axis. The balance I'm talking about is in the yaw axis. The helix actually has a little problem that it is properly balance in the yaw axis only at a certain power, if you increase the power to the rotors to climb, the body will rotate to the left a little and if you decrease the power it'll rotate to the right. It's nothing terrible and you can fix it pretty easy by pushing the stick in the opposite direction of the yaw, but it can get to be a lot to handle in certain situations. The Helix is still a great toy, and I would definately recommend it to anyone interested in a microheli, it's just a little annoying having to constantly correct for the yaw problem. Anyone know if the Gyrotor or the PiccoZ has a similar problem or is this just related to the Helix?
Snit

RE: Air Hogs Helix Helicopter
 

That is the Air Hogs Helix Helicopter 2 not the Reg helix, does anyone know the diff

RE: Air Hogs Helix Helicopter
 

Spinmasters has renamed the Helix . It is now called the Reflex

It has it own website that can be found here > [link=https://www.spinmaster.com/product.php?productid=16219&s=reflex]Reflex[/link] <

I was the one that did the flying in the commercial on the web site and TV.
We had a stack of them there for the shoot. Like many mass produced Toys , not all of them where the same. Some definitely had more power then the others . I think it was a matter of how well the gear mesh was set. But they did all fly. Some just better then others.

I don't want to compare it to other small Helli's out there cause unlike some of the larger counter rotating Helli's, it doesn't have a Gyro.
And unlike some of the smaller Helli's available, it has a little more maneuverability.
I had a lot of fun flying it around, and it can be very predictable to fly. I think most problems come from flying them in small rooms or around a lot of object's where you get a lot of rotor wash from itself, causing it to wonder around a lot. I know it flew very smooth until the camera guy started chasing me everywhere. I crashed into him and his camera a lot

Still pretty cool for the price IMOP.

RE: Air Hogs Helix Helicopter
 

I sent in my requested parts for the Helix recall and I'm anxiously waiting for my new Reflex.
I'm wondering what I could do with the left over parts/radio equipment? Anybody use this to build or modify something else?
What about putting the guts into a small foam glider or something? If anyone has ideas or has done this, I'd love to hear about what you did and how.

RE: Air Hogs Helix Helicopter
 

How long does it fly, average, on a charge? And how long to recharge?

RE: Air Hogs Helix Helicopter
 

where can i buy the helicopter for 50.00? thanks joey please email me back or post the site thanks

RE: Air Hogs Helix Helicopter
 

THAT SITE WANTS 2 PAYMENTS OF $34 :s

RE: Air Hogs Helix Helicopter
 

I don't want to make any of you guys ill, but my son just called to tell me he just bought one of these at Toys R Us, (I believe). There was no price on it, and when he took it to the register, they couldn't find it in the system, so the manager ended up selling it to him for $19.95, with tax less than $22.00. He tried to buy one for me at that price, but they wouldn't do it because they weren't sure of the price [>:] . He's bringing it down later to show it to me.

RE: Air Hogs Helix Helicopter
 

why would anyone get ill? lol

RE: Air Hogs Helix Helicopter
 

Well, maybe the store manager will be ill when he finds out he practically gave one away. I think these foam aircraft are overpriced anyway. $70.00 is way too much. I bought a Gyrotor from ebay for $45.45, then saw another site that was selling it for a $100.00, claiming it was originally $200.00. You gotta be kiddin', that's nuts.

RE: Air Hogs Helix Helicopter
 

i agree. well now the holidays over i see them going down alot on ebay

RE: Air Hogs Helix Helicopter
 

Lookin' over at ebay I see quite a few for sale, one in particular is only $99.99 + $14.99 shipping. Yeah buddy, I'm gonna order me up 2 or 3 of them while they're on sale. [sm=75_75.gif]

RE: Air Hogs Helix Helicopter
 

http://www.hobbypeople.net/gallery/653009.asp has them for 69.99

RE: Air Hogs Helix Helicopter
 

Now that my son has played with it a couple of days he's gonna sell it to me and get something bigger. I still can't believe ToysRus would put something on the shelf not knowing the selling price. Oh well, the store manager made the call.

RE: Air Hogs Helix Helicopter
 

I ran past Hobby People today and picked one up.They are a lot harder to fly than they make it look,unless I got a stuborn one.I dialed it in so it doesn't spin a lot but it seems to want to wander forward or backward.Even tho, it's still a lot of fun trying.

RE: Air Hogs Helix Helicopter
 

I have a couple air hog reflex's...Both seem to drift forward...after adding a small thumb tac to end of tail I got it to hover level...But then it didnt want to go forward...I guess thats why they designed it to drift forward...The small props on sides really dont do much more than turn it left or right...Hitting forward it goes for few feet and then it slows down to a hover even if you hold the forward button...The front end tends to lift as it picks up speed causing a braking action...Reverse is more like a brake...maybe if the side props were a bit bigger it might have more control...$60 at Toys-R-Us...Still fun to fly around house...A video of my reflex [link=http://www.2kool4u.com/2k_1006/airhog.shtml]Here[/link]

RE: Air Hogs Helix Helicopter
 

That's exactly what mine does,fly's a few feet forward and stops to hover.On the one imfamertial video they show it fly through a tunnel,and under a table,land it on a desk,how many takes did it take to film that?Well what do you expect I guess.I would like to find something simalar in size but more flyable.

RE: Air Hogs Helix Helicopter
 

These are great fun! Mine was flying great and it flew even better when I added a bread-tie to the tail boom for balance (thanks SnitGTS). BUT.......now it all of the sudden wants to do the toilet-bowl-swirl all the time! Have any of you had this problem? Just yesterday I could fly the thing through a whole charge. Now if it is in the air for 10 seconds it starts to swirl.

Any suggestions?:eek:

RE: Air Hogs Helix Helicopter
 

I had the same swirling problem but Im thinking mine was due to a slightly bent tail boom...I bumped a wall and when the blades colapse they always seem to hit the end of tail boom...I think the tape was only thing holding it in place...As the rotor wash hit the slightly bent tail fin it would go into a spin. I was within the 30 day warrantee so I exchanged it for new one.

RE: Air Hogs Helix Helicopter
 

What 30 day warranty? Is this a manufacturer's warranty or a store warranty? I bought mine at walmart and I was considering returning it because it does some other quirky things (like drop out of the sky in the middle of every flight), but I have tossed all the packaging. Where did you exchange yours?
Thanks.