When I was a kid radio control (R/C) models where expensive and you had to build them yourself from plans or maybe a kit.  The engine and radio control system had to be purchased separately and everything came from a specialist model shop.  This was generally true whether the model was a car, boat, glider, aeroplane or helicopter.  Once complete you had to develop the skills to operate it effectively and so every model represented an investment that elevated it far above being a toy.

To use your model you joined a club. It gave you somewhere to show off your hard work and have some friendly competition.  The clubs and the shops bound together with national organisations and specialist publications were the social networks of the day.  Also the clubs negotiated tracks, lakes or airfields for their members with third party insurance cover in case someone got hurt or property got damaged.

With aircraft the clubs also provided experienced members who could teach the beginners and so keep the model in one piece for as long as possible. However, you needed transport to get to the club field and so, coupled with the expense, unless you had a parent who also flew you were pretty much stuck on the ground.  This could be seen in the way that club memberships tended to be dominated by the working or retired generations.

Helicopters were a whole another level.  They cost twice as much as anything else, took twice as long to set up and probably three times longer to learn to fly.  Back then (around 1979) getting the cheapest helicopter in the air would have probably set you back £250. This equates to almost £600 at 2007 prices, so well out of reach for someone still at school.

This was the situation for me.  I had an R/C car and a boat; both saw a lot of use.  I then built a number of aircraft.  The gliders saw a little air time, but the powered ones never did.  In fact I still have them in the garage promising myself that one day I’ll fly them.  The kit for the oldest one was purchased in 1979 and was competed before 1984 when I went off to university.  Its internal combustion engine has never been run.

Whilst at university improvements in motor and battery technology finally reached a point where electric flight became feasible. Up to this point all R/C flight relied on the internal combustion engine.  Electric helicopters were still a little way off.  The first to appear used an umbilical power cord to drive the main motor from a battery that stayed on the ground.  Another development that appeared around this time were models termed “Almost-ready-to-fly”.  These kits featured fully finished airframes with fitted motors and batteries.  You still had to supply and fit your own radio control system though.  It would be a few more years before fully Ready-to-fly (rtf)  models appeared where you could just charge the batteries and go.

Disheartened by my lack of success I gradually stopped following developments in R/C, although I stilled retained the desire to own a helicopter.

Fast forward to 2006 and I started to notice in the Saturday morning TV adverts and the gadget press the introduction of a number of ready-to-fly models that seemed to be more than just toys. This reached a point towards the end of 2007 where tiny electric aeroplanes and helicopters were being advertised that could be flown indoors.

The prices plummeted as retailers tried to shift them off their shelves in the run up to Christmas, so I thought I would give it a go with the purchase of a Silverlit Palm-Z biplane for £12.45.  I flew it at work one lunchtime.  It’s an open plan office, so I was able to fly it in the space above the desks and below the lights.  From this point I was hooked and the Palm-Z was soon joined by a Silverlit PicooZ helicopter.  This was even better because it could be flown in a smaller space.  Having mastered up and down, left and right on the PicooZ, I started looking for other models with more controls and found a whole range of ready-to-fly aircraft at reasonable prices.  I quickly purchased another pair of two channel helicopters, one big, one small which have proven erratic flyers and I was given a three channel Silverlit Twin-X Pro that I need more practice with.

I thought that it might be useful to share my experiences of these models so this blog was born.  My aim is to provide detailed reviews for a  broad spectrum of electric helicopters and aeroplanes.  I’m going to start with the PalmZ and PicooZ from Silverlit and work out from there.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 20th, 2008 at 8:57 am and is filed under General, Site. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.