Early last year, I bought a pair of first-generation quadcopters on clearance at my local Micro Center. I flew them around for a while, then let my son try them. He quickly became a better quadcopter pilot than I was — but he was also a far more daring quadcopter pilot than I was, and we got to the point where I couldn’t fix them. I bought him a mini-quad three weeks ago.
This is where we are now.
We have camera quadcopters, stunt quadcopters, and very fast quadcopters. They take four different specifications of battery and use three different controllers. We also have a proper remote control helicopter, which is fun but not as fun as the quads. Some of the quads have “flip buttons”. Others have an “expert mode” where you manipulate the stick at high speed to flip them. John does that much better than I do. Last night, while I was trying to take a phone call, he inverted a quad above my head and dropped it straight into my hair, on purpose.
That caused me to temporarily lose my good quadcopter humor. “Let’s say it was genius, but let’s say it was also a bad idea,” John offered by way of apology.
These quads break with tiresome regularity. The Hubsan ones go through propellers like Pookie went through crack. You can get them from Amazon but only the true Hubsan OEM props work perfectly. Two nights ago I found myself haggling with a kid at the local computer store so he’d pull three propellers off a returned model. Had he refused, I would have had to buy another quadcopter just to get eight more props.
We’ve also used the ‘copters for teaching opportunities. When the lower rotor in our “regular” helicopter stopped spinning, I traced the problem to a broken solder joint to the second motor. I then had a chance to explain soldering to John, who covered his eyes while I put a new bead on the wire. Someone in the heavens decided to take pity on me; the fix worked and I was elevated as a father in my son’s opinion.
An invert-to-full-power went wrong, leading to a high-speed crash into a tile floor, and John cracked a rotor pinion on one of the Symas. I showed him how SuperGlue works. The first time, our glue joint only held for ten seconds of flight. The rotor departed at high speed and the quad crashed faster than the eye could follow. Our second attempt was better, saving us a $2.50 charge and a four-week wait for the new part.
Yesterday I came home to find a Mylar bag from China on the front step. Inside it was the Syma X11 I’d forgotten about ordering. It’s the biggest, heaviest quad we’ve flown since we got rid of our originals. The controls were touchy and I crashed it three or four times. Then I handed it to my six-year-old boy. The Syma lifted off gently, spun in mid-air, then performed a forward flip. While I watched, yokel-faced with amazement, John landed it on the parapet of his Lego castle.
“I think I am a drone pilot level four point three,” he said. “You are like a three point one. But don’t worry,” he said, misunderstanding the look on my face, “I’m still proud of you.”
“Let’s say it was genius, but let’s say it was also a bad idea,”
At six? You are both gifted in fatherhood and in all likelihood really in for it in 10 years. Stock up on the Protonix.
R/C can be both addicting and nerve-wracking. I race hydroplanes in IMPBA. These things are wicked fast; imagine a 0.67 c.i./0.011 liter engine with 5+ hp. Though nerves run high when you’ve got $1500 out there running 70+ mph with 5 other boats.
http://i1027.photobucket.com/albums/y332/jz78817/DSC_9112_zpstvodsly8.jpg
http://i1027.photobucket.com/albums/y332/jz78817/jim1_zpscwojve4c.jpg
and yes, I’ve done the GoPro thing:
http://i1027.photobucket.com/albums/y332/jz78817/post-11054-0-52979800-1378167432_zpsqjp30p5j.jpg
What Hank said. You, Jack, are in for a Dantesque parental journey through purgatory, hell, and eventually, in a couple decades (give or take five years), heaven.
These kind of posts always bring a smile to my face. My oldest is a year or so younger than John and you preview the coolest toys for him.
“Let’s say it was genius, but let’s say it was also a bad idea,”
My kids will recite from memory: “Once is funny. Twice is annoying. Three times is a spanking.”
If you want some rotors for your Hubsan, I can send you several packages of them. Wife got me one 2 Christmas’s ago. Turns out I am really bad at flying drones, so I bought maybe 30 spare props. Pretty sure they won’t be used. Not sure how many are left, but there are a lot still in the individual packages.
FYI, mine looks just like yours, with mismatched red and black props. No white ones, only red and black.
Found them just a little bit ago. 16 Hubsan packaged red and black mixed props.
While not Made in America, for field repairs you can’t go wrong with Oglesby & Butler’s Portasol butane fueled soldering irons. I purchased mine with a Radio Shack embossing back when Radio Shack was still an essential shop for electronic hobbyists and DIY home audio enthusiasts, and it still works flawlessly today. ProPiezo 75 kits sell for under $70 now, which means they’re about half what I paid for my starter kit ($40) back in ’86 and easily a third compared to the additional $25 I spent for the 4 tip expansion kit (narrow tip, hot knife, heat gun, blowtorch) a year later. Modern units can also be fitted with plastic welding tips, which might provide extended service from worn or cracked airscrews.
Prices for the workhorse quad and hexacopter units haven’t fallen yet to where I’m comfortable writing them off as a business expense but I hope that happens soon. Last year saw me and my partner clambering up to the shop’s roof and carefully shuffling across that nasty, slick white plastic sheathing to fiddle with the failing furnace; a heavy lift drone fitted with a decent service crawler robot to pull the reset switch would be well worth avoiding a slip-and-fall injury.
And I am surprised there hasn’t been mention in the Hollywood media of Daniel Suarez’ “Kill Decision” novel being optioned for conversion into a truly terrifying new motion picture.
This is a great idea that the copters can be used for teaching opportunities but it can be dangerous for the kids. They need to control rotor very carefully.