Syma X11 R/C Quadcopter - Red

Again... SYMA! Their products are some of the best. This little buzzer is a good little toy... and a good transition trainer to quads.I've been flying helicopters... I've tried several different makers and have pretty much settled on SYMA for helicopters. But I wanted to move to quad copters... so I bought a SYMA X8C Quad Copter. I have reviewed that product here on Amazon and wasn't so happy with it. It sustained damage too easily, I thought. I've crashed the helicopters numerous times and they've proven resilient. But the X8C broke after only five or six flights. But maybe now I think I should have started flying quads with something smaller and simpler... like the X11... then moved up.The X11 came with a blade guard not shown in the illustration. The blade guard is a major plus. You will need fewer replacement blades.one negative-- The connector set... male/female, battery to copter... is delicate and tiny. I can see how easily it would be to damage the wiring and solder joints when connecting/disconnecting, as you must do each and every time you recharge the battery. You must remove the battery to charge it. Forgo the temptation to leave the battery in the body of the copter while recharging. This is not a smart move when charging LiPo's. They are subject to overheating and catching fire or exploding if they are not charged properly. Read and inform yourself about Lithium-polymer batteries and heed all warnings. When charging take the battery out each time and place the battery on a non-flammable surface... I use an old dinner plate.... just be very careful to avoid pulling the wires from the solder joints or the connector.Positive-- The X11 is an exceptional flier. It's fast and responsive and can fly outdoors in light wind. So far I have not exceeded the range on the controller. That will probably happen, but the range seems to be more than enough for my purposes.I have been focusing on training myself to control a quad. It's a different animal than a helicopter. So I don't know much about the aerobatics yet. I'll update as I learn more.Bottom line so far-- I recommend the SYMA X11 R/C Quadcopter.UPDATE-- Two more flights... indoors and outdoors...no issues. Fights the wind and wins. Liking this thing!

I really enjoy these toy-class quadcopters and hexacopters. I've had a few, and this one is particularly special to me. The short version of my assessment would be to buy at *least* one of these, if not two. They are cheap and great fun.The prop guard is one of the best designed that I've seen. You can bump this thing off the wall, off the ceiling, and it keeps flying with no harm to the quadcopter or to the room itself. I do like to take the prop guard off when I'm going to fly outdoors. It does fly a little better without the burden.The props themselves are gear driven, which allowed Syma to install bigger props and smaller motors. Those big props can spin more slowly than smaller props, so this quadcopter is not quite as noisy as others in its class.I ended up buying a bunch of spare props but I never needed them. The original props still look great, partly because they are high quality, and partly because the prop guard does its job.As quadcopters go, this one is really easy to fly. This is the one that I teach friends and family how to fly on. It's so forgiving. But even once you know what you're doing, you can get it outside into expert mode and really have some fun with it. The range isn't awesome, but it'll get so small in the distance that you'll lose orientation anyway before the range will drop off.My nits? The yaw rate is a bit slow. I'd like to see a faster yaw rate, at least in the expert mode. There is no real battery warning to speak of. You get a quick flash and then it just drops from the sky. I'd like to have a ~30 second warning on the batteries so I can land the aircraft responsibly. The airframe was made to carry a camera, which this model doesn't have. I'd love to have seen this model simply carry a larger battery for longer flight times instead of having an empty camera bay.