R/C System Easy Copter V2

The following is a review of the R/C System Easy Copter V2. This particular kit was purchased from www.skylinemodels.co.uk

The Easy Copter V2 is a ready to fly small model helicopter. It features contrarotating main rotors driven by two separate brushed motors. This negates the need for a tail rotor to counteract torque. The model is designed to be an indoor model only and is adversely affected by wind.

The main reason for this type of model existing is to act as an introduction to radio control model helicopter flight. We will explore the merits of this later on in the review. For now let's take a look at what you get based on the purchase price which normally sits in the £100 -- £120 range.

Upon opening the box the model and is components are packaged in sturdy clear plastic. No assembly of the helicopter is required as it all comes ready built and test flown by the factory before shipping.
Also in the box is the transmitter (35 MHz) and the mains charger for charging up the lithium polymer battery. The lithium polymer battery is a 7.4 V pack (two cells in series) with a capacity of 900mAh. Extra batteries can be purchased from most good radio control shops and they are relatively inexpensive.

The transmitter does not come with batteries supplied and these must be purchased separately. The transmitter requires eight AA sized batteries in order to function.

Lastly a small manual is included as well as four replacement main rotor blades.

 

Having installed batteries into the transmitter and charged the supplied lithium battery we were ready for flight testing. Just before I go into that there are a few things to cover.

The charger is a very basic lithium charger which plugs directly into a wall socket. It takes the usual 60 to 90 minutes in order to charge the pack. The pack itself is a 900mAh 7.4 V cell designed to slot snugly under the helicopter on its plastic battery tray. The pack is fitted with a JST connector which is plenty good enough to deal with the required amps that this little helicopter is likely to demand.

Typically this type of helicopter is extremely stable. It does not have a tail rotor and the one on the back of the helicopter is just for show. It does not need a tail rotor because it has contrarotating main blades and these counter or cancel out the torque reaction that you get on a single rotor helicopter. This is not to say that you do not have tail rotor control. The helicopter has full tail rotor control but this is governed by speeding up or slowing down the blades on one of the main rotors. This causes a shift in the torque reaction which initiates rotation similar to having a tail rotor.

In order that the helicopter can speed up or slow down either of the two main rotors they are independently driven by separate brushed motors. Unfortunately this is one of the components that will wear, brushed motors always have a limited lifetime but they are extremely cheap and easy to replace.

 

Flight Testing

This type of helicopter is for indoor use only. Any wind at all does have an adverse affect on the model.
Initial hops were conducted in my front room where space is actually quite limited. The model lifted off easily into the hover and I immediately discovered that it was out of trim. The transmitter is a basic model and just has the normal ratchet style trims. 30 seconds later everything was trimmed out and a nice stable hover was attained.

This model will quite happily sit in a hover and gently drift around. It will not fly off and dive into the ground like a full size model will. Pushing the helicopter into forward flight you then discover another difference between this type of model and a standard single rotor machine. The twin rotor requires the application of cyclic continually in order to keep it in forward flight. If you release the stick it will return to a hover.

Aside from these differences to a normal model everything else functions exactly as you would expect on a full-size model. Obviously this type of model is not aerobatic but it is ideal for learning basic orientation and practising nose-in or backwards flight. The added stability gives plenty of time to think and is ideal for a beginner.

So having acquainted myself with the model I then started doing forwards and backwards circuits. It is capable of a reasonable turn of speed but does tend to porpoise in forward flight if you push it too fast. Cyclic response is positive and it feels very comfortable to fly around in a relatively small space. I found myself flying it from room to room through open doorways and up and down stairs. Great fun.

However the purpose of reviewing this model was to ascertain how good it functions as a training aid or introduction to flying model helicopters. In order to assess this I handed the controls to my children. My two boys are seven and nine and so far have just dabbled with a simulator but not ever successfully got the hang of flying helicopters (on the simulator). With both children it took approximately 2 packs and they had the model in a relatively stable hover. A couple more packs later and they were pushing me to take them to the local sports centre to try and get access to a sports hall. My youngest son is now doing pirouettes and has mastered the basics of nose-in hovering. Since doing this he has been on buddy box with me flying one of my full-size models and he made the transition very easily.

Based on this I would say that this model has made an excellent training device. Particularly as neither of my children found it particularly easy to learn to fly helicopters using a simulator. I think the fact that it is a real model and not a graphic on a screen made it much more interesting for them. After all they have much more interesting Playstation games than a simulation of a model helicopter.

I don't think this success is unique to children. As an adult I can see that flying a real model is going to offer benefits that a simulator cannot provide.

As this is a learning device it also needs to be durable. In this regard it absolutely scored top marks. My children cut the throttle from several feet up as well as crashing it into virtually every piece of furniture in the room. After three weeks of this they only managed to break two rotor blades.

 

 

 

Conclusion

When considering learning to fly heli's there is so much to buy and so much confusing and complicated advice to follow. Everyone says get a simulator, then should you go nitro or electric, what size heli?

 

What this little helicopter offers is the opportunity to try out flying helicopters in a relatively safe and easy to fly model. It can be flown in the house and the battery lasts a good 10 minutes. It will teach you the basic controls and does provide a natural progression to something larger and more difficult to fly. It certainly does not replace the role of a simulator but it certainly does give the opportunity to fly a real model and get some real stick time in relative safety. This model is extremely durable and even I enjoy flying it around. It can't fly inverted but it can fly backwards and as such I have found it a useful tool for practising backwards circuits. It is cheap to buy and cheap to repair and if you outgrow it you should get a reasonable return second hand.

Fun for beginner and expert and a way to fly when the weather outside suggests otherwise.