The other day in the office I heard wat sounded like the drill of a dentist.  I looked behind a wall and saw a very small helicopter flying around. It was about the size of one of those big Southern European dragon flies. I started talking to the guy flying it. After a while I played around with it a bit too and had a lot of fun.

A week or so earlier at a birthday party someone gave a bigger helicopter which looked very nice as a present. So by the time I was flying that bug I was pretty much ready to get my own helicopter. So I stared looking around.

First of all I was surprised to see what a wide range of products are available when you started looking for a remote controlled helicopter. You can get cheap small ones for as little as 30 euros and the big ones with flight models that are quite realistic go up to thousands of euros.

I ran into the Esky Belt CP V2 and it seems to be a sophisticated machine for a reasonable price. I bought it a few days later and picked it up at the ‘shop’. Shop is a big word as the guy sells these helicopters as a hobby from his garden shed. He was very nice though and showed me the basics and told me how to start it properly. So I went home and tried it out.

Charging the battery takes three hours. That’s quite a bit, but then it’s a powerful battery. That big battery only allows for about 10 minutes of flight though. After those ten minutes you’re back to waiting for 3 horus before you can have a go again. So of course I pretty soon ordered a second battery.

The first couple of times I was very careful. When that gave me mixed results I became a little less careful. That seemed to go well for a while, but then disaster struck. It went sideways and instead of powering down, I powered up by accident. It accelerated sideways and banged into a chair… The blades shattered at the tips and the helicopter came to a halt on its side…

So I ordered two sets of blades too. They don’t cost too much, so it’s not that bad. I just hope I didn’t damage any other parts of the helicopter. There’s a reason spare parts are so readily available… People crash them regularly when they’re still learning to fly