Adult toys
From time to time I like to browse the catalogue over at ThinkGeek, as they tend to have stuff that makes me go “Whoa!” or generally smirk at the cube-warfare fantasies they perpetuate. I can certainly identify with some of them, but they always seem to lose their zeal in real life.
Now that I work from home, there’s really no line to be crossed in building these out; simply, there’s nobody to offend. In a throw back to my single-digit / early teen years, I’ve purchased a RC Helicopter.
It’s really cool.
So far I’ve not managed to do much more than take-off, hover a bit, and land. I think I may have slightly damaged the bottom rotor when taking it out of the box, because when hovering, the top rotor spins clean and level, while the bottom appears to wobble a little. It looks a little like a bike with a bent rim. As a result of this, flight is quite challenging, and forward flight isn’t very stable. When I push the stick forward, it moves forward very slightly, then usually jerks hard to one side into a spin (unless I correct quickly).
Generally the controls are extremely sensitive, including the throttle. Getting the chopper to hover for more than a moment is tricky, probably due to air currents and the aforementioned bottom rotor. We’ll see how I do after this weekend in NY.
Update: I managed to break the bottom rotor today while doing a short test flight, so I’ve put in an RMA request with ThinkGeek. I had suspected this unit was defective anyway, so hopefully they’ll agree…