deschmann's Full Review: Dragonfly Hughes 300 Rtf Electric Rc Helicopter
My brother and I received this RC Helicopter as gifts around Christmas time. We opened his up and set about charging it up. The remote control takes 8 AA batteries (not included). The helicopter itself comes with a rechargeable battery and AC adapter for charging.
A quick skim of the 4 page instruction book found no information on how long to charge the battery for before use. A more detailed read of the 4 page instruction book revealed that there is no information on how long to charge the battery. The only information provided was not to overcharge the battery, do not expose the battery to direct sunlight (guess we'll have to fly when it is cloudy), keep battery temp to under 45 deg celsius when charging, and that charging should only be done by adults.
Well, my brother in law is a doer, not a follower so he plugged it in and we gave it a 30 minute charge before trying it out. We took it outside, and fired it up. It took off OK, spun around a little and we landed it.
First thoughts, the motor seems pretty powerful, it took off OK, landings will probably seem difficult. We took off again, the helicopter spiraled out of control, grazed a tree branch and the tail rotor broke off. Done.
Total flight time, about 30 seconds. It seems as though the tail connection to the helicopter body is a small plastic piece that is quite fragile. On this helicopter, the connection snapped right apart. Due to the stress the tail rotor motor will apply to the tail rotor, we don't think glue will hold it together. My Brother in law found replacement parts on line and ordered a few more body's for his helicopter.
Now on to my flight. I searched the internet for this model helicopter and found that battery charging time is 3 hours. On a full charge you will get 10 minutes flight time. That seems like an awful long time to wait for a very quick flight. It also advertised "hours of fun", which I guess is true if you don't mind watching your helicopter charge.
I opened my box up and pulled the helicopter out. I was a little worried as I found a nut and screw loose in the box, but try as I might I could see no place for these extra pieces to go. I charged my helicopter for 1 hour, knowing there was a serious possibility my flight time would be much less than 10 minutes, considering what happened to the other helicopter.
Then the time came to try it out. I took it outside and carefully fired up the motor. I slowly lifted off and the helicopter flew backwards a ways. Since I was not truly in control I eased off the throttle and landed it in the grass. Not too good, but a safe 5 second flight. I went to lift off again, and when I started to reach takeoff speed the tail rotor inexplicably started rotating and in seconds the helicopter started to shimmy and the tail rotor assembly broke off. The same fate as my brother in law.
On closer inspection, the plastic tail rotor connection is broken on this helicopter also. In my opinion, the tail rotor assembly of this helicopter has a design flaw and is too weak to handle the motor stress. It did not break at the screw, the plastic itself sheared apart. I will have to call my brother in law and see if he had any success with his replacement parts.
This was a very disappointing product. My brother in law got all of about 20 seconds of flight before his broke (albeit by grazing a branch). I was extra careful with mine after his experience and mine only lasted 5 seconds before it broke.
I do not recommend this product. I can't imagine it was tested by the manufacturers. It is a very poor helicopter.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 0.00 Type of Toy: Radio Control
Age Range of Child: 9 Years or Older
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.