Video at http://panorama.000webhost.info/
I'm trying to upload to Youtube but it is too slow so I failed a few times already.
The video is in .flv format so you need to download an flv player.
This RC Heli is a 3 channel micro helicopter with 3 motors. It is made of plastics instead of polystyrene which makes it tougher. I weighed it at 17g, which makes it lighter than a 2 channel micro aeroplane the X-twin that I bought for RM94 and made of polystyrene.
It does not fly well and control appear to be sluggish, but it is completely safe and indestructible. I play this micro helicopter in my living room everytime I'm free. I limit the time to just less than 1 minute or as much time as it takes to fly up and then down again, before charging it. One problem with rechargeable battery is that if you discharge it too much, you will destroy the battery, so you should charge as often as you can.
You can buy it for RM75 at Sungai Wang Plaza, Kuala Lumpur but I bought mine at http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.12231~r.42577271
It costs US$24.11 including delivery right to your home via normal registered airmail.
This dealextreme site is the future in mail order. The total cost including delivery is about the same as buying from our local shops but these items are delivered right to our home. I've ordered more than 14 times so far but each one costing less than RM100.
The only problem is the lack of colour choice and hassle of returning a faulty or wrongly delivered item. I had just gone through one such process. So far so good. Dealextreme will refund 1/3 of the price of the item for return postage which is about the same cost for my registered airmail postage cost in returning the sound card, back to them. It is supposed to be a 6-channel with digital input but what is delivered is just a 4-channel sound card without a working game port.
The choice of items is incredible. It keeps on growing at more than 20 items per day. My policy is always to buy locally but our local suppliers just cannot provide this much choice.
You'll be given 1 dx point for each part of US$10 which can be exhanged for more items. Earlier, I keep on ordering less than US$10, partly for trial purposes but just recently I notice that I can get more discounts if combine them until their values are closest to multiples of US$10.
You can also join its affiliate program which I don't mind because I really recommend this site especially people from the remote states such as Sabah.
The package is labelled as gift but you can pay US$0.01, to make it officially a gift addressed to another delivery address without Dealextreme logo. Many of these items such as handphone batteries cannot be strictly delivered to Malaysia because they are controlled items, but I don't think there is such a control for certain parts such as toys. This may have resulted in the closure of an RC Toy factory, Niko resulting in loss of jobs to locals, but it may be more due to management failure to face to challenges of the future such as this email order site.
Early on, many mail order sites charge exhorbitant rates for postages which make their products much more expensive than those offered locally. Dealextreme is an exception. With the proximity to the factories where most of these items are manufactured, China has an outlet for their products to be sold directly to the world without having to go through middlemen.
The other advantage is the affiliate program. If you click the link to the item, I can be given a bonus point. I'm not sure how it works or whether it functions properly but it is secondary to my attempt to tell as many people as possible about this site.
Another site that I would like to promote is www.000webhost.com
[Cheap Innovative Products] This is where I keep the video for demonstrating the flying and indestructible characteristic of this micro heli. This site also has an affiliate program and it provides banners for it as well. I chose that banner because it gives all the characteristics of this free webhosting.
I prefer hosts that allow me to choose my domain name, such as othmana.tripod.com, and now panorama.00webhost.com. I also have othaman.00webhost.com, and can also create a few more, but this time, using net46.com or sometimes net78.com
Another free webhosting site is 1stfreehosting, where I use is as backup but I find difficulties in programming it. The video is also there but you cannot access it. othman.1stfreehosting.com
Because it is recently launched I can choose my own name but I cannot create additional domain names for this free package, but with a promise of 20Gbyte space it looks attractive. Uptime used to be high above 99% but now it is only about 97%. Refer to 360x180pano.blogspot.com
What good is it to play with this micro heli? It improves our relex actions. There is little physical activity but may be good for older people like myself. I love to go out, but I don't have enough cash and time to do it. I also practise in flight simulators but you tend to get bored and suspicious of its effectiveness.
This interest led me to panoramic pictures which I input into these flight simulators. While testing these scenes, I practise RC flying. Mostly aeroplanes but some sceneries require helicopters so I test them also.
These flight simulators do help me. In the case of the X-twin, it helps about 50% because these flight simulators can't seem to handle 20g aeroplanes and thrust vectoring. This micro heli is simulated to about 70% because it handles like the bigger helicopters in RC flight simulators. It even tumbles left and right, and rotates wildly.
