When you have kids, there are toys and then there are toys. For Christmas, my 8-year-old got a toy from my brother’s family — an indoor RC helicopter called the Black Ghost. Here’s video of one in action.
If you read the reviews over at Amazon, they fall into two camps. One hated it because his helicopter self-destructed on the first flight. If that had happened to us I’d hate it too. The others liked it because you can fly it out of the box (it comes partially charged) and because once you get the hang of the trim and turn controls it’s easy enough for a kid to fly. Count me in the second camp. We’ve had a little trouble with the rotors cracking, but it’s nothing that a little Scotch tape can’t fix up and get it back in the air shortly. And they do sell replacement rotors. You do have to be careful working on it though — the helicopter’s body is a tough Nerf-like spongy thing but the mechanics are delicate. As for batteries, the controller serves as the charger, and a 20-minute charge gets you between 5 and 10 minutes of flight time depending on what you do in the air. That’s not too bad. One funny thing — the controller works on infrared, and so does our cable TV controller. Flying the helicopter and trying to change the channels at the same time can lead to unpredictable results.
The Black Ghost is fun to fly, tougher than it looks and great on winter days with the outside temp hanging well below freezing. I’ve used it to explain the principles of lift and flight to my kid. Your mileage may vary, but we like it.
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