Looking around for something cool to do in my spare time, I realised that I had always wanted to get into Remote Controlled (RC) helicopters. However, I never really had the money to spend on toys (or I didn't want to spend so much money on toys); but in hindsight, I had spent thousands and thousands of dollars on my monster fish hobby within the past few years. So spending a few hundred on a RC Helicopter didn't seem so bad. Motivated by my wife's enthusiasm in me getting a new hobby (I think it had more to do with keeping the house clean of fishy aquarium water) I went and bought my first RC Helicopter for RM150 (around US$45).
When I bought my Syma S107 last Thursday, I didn't know anything about RC Helicopters; but being the geek I am, I quickly found some great stuff on YouTube (posted by other geeks) which taught me the difference between the Syma S107 and the S107G (the one with the G has the electronic gyroscope fitted for better stability), how to control the flight using the transmitter, what "3Ch" meant (3 channels include up-down, turn right-left and forward-back. 4Ch includes roll left-right) and how to charge the micro helicopter using a USB connection. Armed with my new found knowledge, I managed to get it to fly indoors without always crashing into the walls (it did take a few hours of flight time and charging time as you will only get around 10-15 minutes of flight time on a full charge).
Loving my new found money trap, I even took it to the park to show-off to the other "kids" but was really embarrassed when it got caught in the wind and crashed miserably. Apparently this model is designed for indoor use and doesn't work well outdoors as the Infrared (IR) transmitter doesn't work in outdoor conditions. This was great news as now I have an excuse to go buy another one designed for outdoor use.
Today I was performing tricks with it (getting the hang of it now) when suddenly it started crashing (without my handiwork) due to blade imbalance. Again spending some time on YouTube I found that the main mast was broken and had to be fixed. The truly impressive thing was that I manged to find loads of parts on ebay for under US$10. I even threw in a toolkit to show my wife that I'm really serious about this one.
As with any hobby, I'm sure I will get tired after a few months and a few thousand dollars. Having said that, it's real good fun and quite addictive. I even feel that my BP has gone down since I started it.
Now... if you are a reader of my blog, you will be wondering why I suddenly started blogging about RC Helicopters...
Well looking at it closely, isn't this a prime example of throwaway technology? I mean a few years back, only rich kids could afford flying toys as they were big, bulky and expensive to maintain. Today the technology has become so cheap that even someone like me and you can start flying for less than 50 bucks! This is yet another victory for throwaway technology; and I'm sure I will be throwing this one away when I get my hands on the newer models. Well... If you are looking for a new inexpensive hobby then this might be worth considering!
