38cm Double Horse 9116 2.4GHz 4CH 4 Channel RC Single Blade Helicopter Gyro Big 450 Size (COLORS MAY VARY)

Someone already wrote a really nice review of this copter so I'll keep this fairly short. First and foremost, if you think you know how to fly helicopters from flying 3ch coaxial helicopters, you don't. Although they have provided you with some of the physics of rotary flight, they've also provided you with a huge comfort level in that they are able to hover continuously. Forget most of that with this one.A 4ch single rotor is getting the user closer to collective pitch flying will still providing a greater degree of safety via being able to hover for brief periods and with some input from the flyer. More challenging but a lot more fund when you've mastered it. This is a great beginner copter for someone who hopes to progress to 6ch CP and likes to fly outdoors. Most coaxials do very poorly in the wind, this does better. Still not great but able to be confidently flown in 5mph breezes.The copter itself is very well made IMO. Real hobbyists will probably tell you differently but for the price, it really can't be beat. The transmitter that comes with it has far more features than anything else in this price range with the ability to fly in two modes (slow/fast) that changes all the controls. You can even go in under individual controls and get throw rates and percentages to soften the initial flying - make all those adjustments under the slow setting and use that to train yourself. Don't get impatient trying to figure out all the ideal settings for flying - it took me three battery charges to get it right and even then, I still have to use the minor trim buttons to get it perfect for each flight.Suggestions: Buy the spare parts kit, either on here or from and overseas supplier and buy an extra tail boom/motor combo as the tail motors are not real durable from what I've read. Personally, I bought a DH 9100 here on Amazon for $45 shipped to use as a parts copter - about 85% of the parts are identical to the 9116 plus you'll get a spare battery. It ends up being about the same as what you'd get from various vendors and plus you'll have all those little screws leftover when you're done and they are extremely nice to have.Double Horse is never going to produce the highest quality on the market. If you want a more well built unit, get a Walkera but if you think you're eventually going to progress to 6ch, get this and save your big money for the next step up. Durability of this unit hasn't been proven yet, might even be described as a little sketchy if you read the radio control forums. I think some of that is unrealistic expectations that it should fly perfectly right out of the box like your coaxial did - isn't going to happen.One very strong suggestion - always buy this from Amazon where Amazon is actually doing the fulfillment. Most vendors not selling on Amazon will not take returns unless it's absolutely DOA and you call within a day of it being delivered, even then some will assume it worked and you crashed it and may not be as accommodating as you would like. Amazon has basically a no questions asked return policy where if it is defective, they pay return shipping and the refund is very quick.UPDATE: Having now flown this copter for many hours, my initial impression remains - great value for the money. I have since learned how to make some mechanical adjustments that allow it fly much better and hover almost hands off. If you join the rcgroupsDOTcom forum, you will find a long thread dedicated to this copter and how to make it fly better than it does out of the box. Basically, when you get into 4ch and above flying, there is no such thing as ready to fly perfectly, they will all need some adjustments. Playing with the sub-menus on the controller really makes a difference in training as you can slowly increase various features as your skills improve and then finally go into the "quick" mode where everything is preset to 100% (although can still be changed).If you're on the fence about this copter, get it. Unless you are an accomplished flyer already, this will be challenging enough to be be fun and durable enough to put up with amateur mistakes. I've flow it into the house, crashed it onto pavement and even got it trapped under a car upon landing. The blades are unbelievably strong because they have taken a beating. Now that I'm a bit more accomplished, I can see one set of blades lasting for the life of the copter.Do yourself a favor and order a 900mah battery to replace the one that comes with it. Increased flight times will be the result and it fits perfectly in the existing battery cradle. Little bit heavier so you may have to dial in some forward trim to offset it but that's no big deal.

I have now purchased 4 double horse 9116's but only have 1 left. I still love them. Excellent for beginners they have power speed and agility desired when starting your new hobby. They can take a crash and keep on tickin. I do have one common issue I have found. The remotes tend to randomly short out mid flight and fail to transmit. Typically the throttle disengage failsafe kicks in and the motor turns off until the remote transmits and syncs again a second later. This was not the case for two of my 9116's. When the remote shorted the failsafe didn't kick in and I lost controll of my helo in whatever state it was in when it shorted (turning, accelerating, backing down...) well twice now it was during take off, so a bit heavy on the throttle. So as the remote went in and out I attempted to pre emptively direct it. With less people around I would have just grounded it but I feared I would injure someone. So in and out, up and down I would slowly lose control until both times it was over our pond. This was all in a matter of 10 seconds, it had been flying great for the previous 3 minutes. Well the pond is large enough that as it flew over I could no longer control it and had to worry about property damage and injury. With minimal control over the helo, my only option was to back off the throttle completely hoping it got the signal the next time. It did. On the first helo, the throttle control mosfet shorted so while underwater it discharged. Once I retrieved it and had it above water the throttle was not controlled and the blades smacked me a couple times til I unplugged the battery. The second time the water was too cold so I couldn't swim to get it. It's now in a large ice cube. So end result, remotes short internally and fail to transmit constantly and the throttle disengage failsafe... fails.

Received my DH 9116 fulfilled by Amazon and it arrived on time, intact, new and everything functional. I had a few weeks experience with the small V911 4 channel, gained a lot of proficiency, but wanted something larger for outdoor flying as we head into Spring. Its a nice size, about 16" long...I haven't weighed it, but its not light so I'm hopeful that it can handle a mild breeze. It is much heavier and more substantial than the Blade 120 SR which I was shown at the local hobby store. Here are some key points that may be helpful given my experience so far:1. I have only experienced flying ( to set up and trim) in my basement, low ceilings and limited area. Out of the box it was a bit wild on takeoff and required significant trimming to hover...2-3 bars of right aileron, 2 bars of back elevator and a bit of left rudder. I did add sub-trims for each, which do stick when TX is powered off, but they didn't seem to do much. I tried adjusting servo connectors, but that made things worse so I reset to defaults. A more experienced person may have more luck with that. Anyway, with trims, the swash is level and I can get a good solid hover at about 5' altitude. Even trimmed, you may need to be quick on the control sticks on takeoff to counteract ground effect and get it stable. Smaller 4 channel experience will help with this.2. It is true that if you bang it around and hit stuff, the metal fly bar will hit the canopy, but this shouldn't be a problem as you get used to it and new canopies are cheap and available.3. I removed the metal horizontal stabilizer as it is only decorative and can catch the main rotors when trying to take off. I kept the side bars on the tail boom to retain CG and add support. I cut a black 1" servo arm from airplane parts bin , reamed two holes for the screws and put that across where the horiz stab was. No more catch on start up.4. There have been many complaints regarding tail rotor motor burning out. Mine stopped working and copter spun wildly on takeoff, of course. I pried off the plastic cage covering the motor ( lift with xacto knife behind tab locks) and discovered that a small ground wire had been poorly soldered to the motor casing. I re-soldered it and added a small piece of elect tape and it worked fine again. Check that before replacing the tail boom and motor. Caution...when testing this fix, disconnect the main rotor plug from PCB and remove the tail rotor prop for safety. The main rotors are large, fast and can do some serious damage to hands, etc.5. Batteries. The product description and even the packaging says LiPo, but they are 650 MAH Li Ion, not Lithium Polymer which have a much higher energy density. I had ordered a 2nd when I bought the DH and wish I hadn't. This copter burns through them very quickly, airtime is very short. I bought a Thunder Power 2 cell 910 MAH 25C 7.2 volt LiPo locally and they're sold on Amazon as well. Consider, however, that the charger that comes with the DH9116 may not be appropriate for LiPo's. I wasn't about to try it, plus I have a quality LiPo charger from my airplane experience. I was able to retro-fit this battery, but it required some modifications to do so. The TP 910's JST wire is too short so I had to make an extension...easy, buy one on line, or hobby shops have male and female connectors so just solder wires together and shrink tube it. I needed about 2 more inches for the adapter. The TP 910 is similar weight, but longer, but the DH 9116 has plastic stops to keep the original batts from going too far in. Simply cut the bottom of those tabs with small side-cutters and twist off the tabs with small needle nose pliers. That give about another 1/4 inch to slide the TP 910 in far enough to get a good CG and a nice snug fit when the canopy is put back on. Also, if you're not using a balancing charger, you won't need the CSR connector which just gets in the way. I cut it off (4 wires, one at a time so not to short battery) and the 2" extension reaches the JST plug on the side which can be used for charging or discharging. The difference in power and runtime is amazing. More power response and seems to run twice as long. I'll be buying one or two more of these soon. You will be very pleased with the difference if you can set it up this way...I won't even use the two original batteries in the field.Since I haven't flown outside to judge performance or endurance I will follow up. I can say that indoors, in a small space, it isn't nimble like a small 3 or 4 channel. The weight causes a lot of inertia and angular momentum. It won't pivot well in place without correction, but that likely won't be an issue outdoors. It also sounds great, more like a real heli, moving a lot of air with those big rotors. Has cool white LED headlight and blue flashing tail light, easily disconnected if you think it will conserve power.Hope this helps in deciding to buy or modifying some things to make it better.