I had never flown an RC helicopter before but recently had the urge to do so, so last night I visited the local hobby shop and purchased the Ares Chronos CX75 and CX100 RC helicopters. The CX100 immediately caught my eye because it comes with an onboard camera that can shoot video and take still photos (a 2gb SD card is also included). Both helicopters are ready to fly right from the box after their batteries are charged.

Last night I flew the CX75 indoors to get used to the controls, and it wasn’t incredibly difficult to get the hang of flying it (I could fly it, just not necessarily well). I also flew it outside in the dark which was fun (it has a bright light on the nose) though I almost landed in on the roof of the house.

Earlier today I took the CX100 outside and flew it for the first time. It’s a bit more difficult to fly, but there are also many more modes on the transmitter and I only skimmed the manual before I started flying. In mode 4 it controls like the CX75, however for whatever reason I found it hard to control pitch. It wouldn’t fly forward and backward as easily as the CX75, it seemed like it was slower to respond. I assume this may be because I was flying in the ‘low’ control rate setting which is recommended for beginners which limits control authority for smoother flying. I may try out the ‘high’ setting on a short flight to see if that will make it more responsive (though I imagine I’ll probably crash it more often).

I wasn’t flying in a very wide open space so ultimately I crashed the CX100 about 15 feet up in a tree and had to knock it down with a tennis ball. Luckily the helicopter didn’t suffer any damage. Initially the propellers were blocked by the branch, but I was able to hit it so that it fell and was only hanging by its tail and from there I was able to fly it out of the tree. After that it wouldn’t take off anymore, but I believe the battery drained during the 5 minutes it was in the tree.

The video I was able to capture with the CX100 is pretty cool. The quality is higher than I expected from a camera included with a $70 helicopter. I also didn’t expect it to have sound which is a neat addition, although all you really hear is the buzz of the rotors. So far I’m having a blast flying the CX75 and CX100 around. Both say they’re intended for indoor use only, but I find most of the fun comes from flying them high in the air outdoors. I’m excited to learn to fly them both better and get some cool video with the CX100.