Syma S111G 3.5 Channel RC Helicopter with Gyro

I ordered 8 of these (various Syma models) as Christmas gifts this year for all the guys and they were a hit with everyone. I've never seen so many people have so much fun for such a long period of time with such an inexpensive toy. I figured they'd all be broken within a matter of minutes but they actually held up very well. One of them (Coast Guard 111) was defective out of the box; wouldnt move forward because of an issue with the tail motor (could move backward). Items that were broken over the course of the day were a couple tail rotors, a main rotor head, and some misc parts (ie canopies, side pods from a 108, etc). I was going to return the 111 but decided to just order another and we canabalized the 111 for the parts to repair the broken rotor head on the 108. Of the models purchased, the 108 seems to be the most aggressive in terms of flight characteristics. The 109 (Apache) seems to be the most stable of the lot and was very easy and predictable to flight in tight spaces. The 102 (Black Hawk) seemed to have the most lift out of the bunch but also had the touchiest throttle (tough to hover without throttle input where the rest of them seemed to hover without as much throttle manipulation). We've only flown 4 of the 8 and of those 4, 1 was defective out of the box. I'll update after this weekend (rest of them will be given out) and report on how they're doing. I cant believe how durable they have been though; none of the recipients had flown helis before with the exception of myself (limited experience) and it showed. I cant count how many times these things have hit the concrete from 8-10' off the ground. None of the main blades have broken yet but we did have the one head failure late Christmas night. Of the 3 that were operational all day, the 108 consistantly had the longest run time of the bunch and usually last 2 minutes longer than the 102 and 109. The 102 and 109 had very similar runtime to one another; perhaps the 108 we got just had a very good battery (2 more 108s will be used this weekend so I'll report if there is a pattern with the longer runtimes). We were able to fly 3 of them at the same time. I'd read that while the 108 had 3 channel selections, only 2 seemed to work. The 108s remote wouldnt bind to any of the other helis. We put the 102 on channel B, the 109 on channel A, and used channel B on the 108 (which reportedly didnt work from other reviews I've read) and were able to fly interference free all afternoon. The remote from the 108 is a bit different from the others and has 3 channel selections vice the 2 that are available on the other 2 models. I guess channel may be a bit confusing here, the remote and heli is a 3 channel unit providing throttle, rudder, and forward/backward motion. There are also the channels (pretty sure that was how it was labeled in the manual) that can be used to separate your remotes from the others so you can fly simultaneously around other helis. While this one was defective out of the box, I'm pretty sure all the models are basically the same and wouldnt hesitate to purchase another. I did find the lights on this model to be the coolest of the 4 models we purchased; 2 of them flash red and blue and there is a white spot light up front as well.

I have three RC copters now. This one is my new favorite! Looks great and flies easily. The other SYMA I have is the Apache which also looks great and flies well. I like the bright colors of this one and the blades are also white in color. Has a small LED light located at the front of the nose and also one in the front above the helicopter's windshield that turns from red to blue and also one on the underside, rear that turns from red to blue. They look really nice when flying this. It charged in about 50 minutes just like my other Apache from SYMA. I can tell it's durable for what it's worth. Nicely detailed and fun to fly. Seriously I never dreamed I'd enjoy these little copters so much and I intend to purchase a few more when I see one that catches my eye. For $23 it's well worth it! I fly mine inside the house where there's no breeze. My first helicopter I got was for Christmas and my wife paid around $80. In it's defense it is a 2.4 Gig band helicopter and has a larger range for flying. Might be getting the Chinook next. Get them now before it's too late. Last year after October they were sold out it seemed. Flying time was about 8 minutes or more. Seemed to last longer on it's second flight but trust me, that's long enough. Just allow for it to sit after flying for a few minute before recharging. That's why you should get 2 or more. I can fly 3 now back to back. Amazon is the place for getting these. Look for FREE super saver shipping and if you have to join then it's well worth it if you order things throughout the year. Now without any doubts order yourself one!,,,, For the price and fun factor you won't be disappointed. One more thing. I use my electric charger from my Apple Itouch to charge it sometimes. The USB plugs in it and the voltage isn't too much for the copter. Doesn't seem to charge any faster but just in case you wanted another way to charge it without using the controller or USB to a computer. You can buy an electric adapter though extra and that might be a good idea, depending on your interest. The plug going into the heicopter is very small so make sure you get it right before pushing too hard for it to go in. I marked the top side of mine with a black magic marker so I'll do it right everytime.

UPDATE 12/23/12 The best mini copters! These deserved an update so updating the 107G, 111G, 109G, and the 102G which i love the most. After a full year of use, all but one of the copters are still flying - and that one (one of the 107G's) is only because i was letting my 2 year old have his fun. The others - I HAVE NOT REPLACED A SINGLE MECHANICAL PART. I recently ordered replacement batteries because i foolishly let them sit on the shelf for months without cycling any charge etc - not a smart thing to do with any battery operated item so my bad - (though it would be cool to have a mini cycler you could have them connected to that would drain them and recharge.) THEY ARE ULTRA DURABLE.. and fly so nice. The 102G is my favorite, then the 109G, then the 107Gs and 111G. The 102G because it seems to be the smoothest and most responsive, as well as the quickest to move forward or backward. Kids or adults they make a great gift. All indoor use, as they get affected by any breeze - so dont plan to use them outside. and for the price, you really cant go wrong. I also have a U809G (believe that was the model) from another brand which is close and also great quality, but perhaps not as smooth. It does shoot missiles which is a cool feature, and the transmitter on that one isnt spring loaded on the throtte, so it will stay where you set it. Iver recently started seeing the SYMA's rebranded at the mall with the SAME color and graphic schemes, as well as transmitters with a different label. the mall copters used to be junk for 2-3x the cost, and so now it looks like they have caught on. but still, their prices were 1.5-2x what you could get them for here and those kiosks dissappear quick! -- ORIG 12/25/11 So for xmas a two 107Gs, a 109G and a 111G as well as two Air Hog Sharpshooters arrived at the house for the kids. The Sharpshooters are just not worth it especially for the money - i think they were even more than at least one of the Syma's - they are cheaper made, no forward/reverse - never can really find trim and one piece blades. one broke on the second flight. Now, the Syma's - Im absolutely impressed. I had bought two mallstore copters last year which were junk. Impossible to fly, and no where the quality or durability. I like all three of these, and here is my take: 107G's are the most nimble of the three - quick to the air, stablest in hover and seem to move the quickest when low to the ground.they have skids so pretty decent on the land - and if rolled over on side, a quick throttle boost can right them back up on the skids. 109G - love the look (military), seems a little beefier and for the kids its great --moves nicely controlled. 111G - most sensitive of the three, but makes it interesting. Seems to be the hardest for the kids to fly. tends to pull back when trying to just hover or lift off.nice looking though and frankly i like the difference the three bring to the table. all around, very impressed with the Syma Brand and durability - did not expect the quality and product after the Air hogs experience and mall bought mini's. Pleasantly surprised and look forward to a couple more!!

I will preface this review by saying that this is the first time I have felt compelled to leave a review on Amazon, although I buy stuff from them all the time. Only after a year of moderate to heavy use with 5 different models do I feel that I have enough evidence to support such a strong recommendation. My experience with Syma helicopters started when my wife got me a Syma S109G for Christmas last year. I've had some toy R/C helicopters before and none of them were very rewarding, so I wasn't expecting to be so surprised. These gyro-based helicopters (note the important letter 'G' at the end of the model name) are amazingly stable in flight. They are REDICULOUSLY FUN. Within a few flights, I had the helicopter landing and taking off from a shoebox. My favorite challenge is to pick an object in the house to land on, or to fly a circuit around the house. I live at high altitude (7000 ft), so my flight times are not as long as they would be at sea level, but I still typically get several minutes of flight. What is great is that they charge off of any USB port within a handful of minutes. I repeatedly tell my wife that this present was truly brilliant. After a few weeks, I wanted more, so I bought this S111G. It was even better, only because the lights are multicolored and change color. These helicopters are surprisingly true to the real full scale version for their price. I found myself comparing the details to pictures of the real thing online, just to find the subtle distinctions which are few and far between. I became an addict, since they are so reasonably priced. At this point I have 5 different Syma helicopters and they are all fun to fly. I have a shelf in my house as a dedicated 'hangar' for my fleet. Each one of them has slightly different flight characteristics and endurance, which make them all slightly different to fly (although all of them are consistently easy to fly). My guess is that the differences in endurance is mostly due to manufacturing variation in the battery capacity. I will say that the S022 Chinook has a very brief flight time (<1 minute), though I'm not sure if that's due to the double rotor or a weak battery. My S107G also has a short flight time (~1 minute), which could be due to the heavier metal structure or a weak battery. I also bought 1 of the Viefly gyro heli's - the 331. The Viefly is not nearly as realistic. Also, it is a bit smaller and has a little too much power which makes it more difficult to control, although on the flip side it does last a bit longer. Don't get me wrong, I still like the Viefly alot, but I personally prefer the Symas. Besides the great flight characteristics, the S109G comes with an additional bonus - some classic Chinglish on the rotor blades: "If blade damage, don't be fly, otherwise it will create the human body or blame damage". I kid you not. That is classic and still puts a smile on my face a year later. None of the other models have quite such good distortions of English. But that warning does bring up another discussion point - reliability. Now, after nearly a year of flying 5 models and crashing them over and over and over again from heights as high as 20 feet, they all still fly like new. Even battery life still seems about like when I bought them. Sure, some of the blades do have significant nicks on their leading edge, but they all fly fine, and I haven't created the human body or blame damage. There are replacement blades on Amazon, but I haven't needed any yet. It looks like some of the blades may be interchangable among models, but I haven't had a need to try yet. In summary, for under $30, these are rediculously fun, easy to maneuver, reliable little heli's. Besides my own collection, I've now given 3 away as gifts to relatives. They are not perfect, and might be a little hit or miss, but in general I can whole-heartedly recommend them to anyone interested in R/C flight indoors.

The S111g flies perfectly. Its super smooth, easy to control and looks cool. I found this heli flies exactly the same as the Syma s107g, its well balanced and you get a solid 6-7mins out of the battery which is good enough for beginners. Im more of an intermediate, but still had a lot of fun with it. I recommend this heli highly. I also can‘t fault any of the other Syma helicopters that Ive flown, they truly are well built for such a cheap price. The only knock I have on this helicopter is the forward speed. Its built for beginners, so its stable. Id say almost too stable and doesnt go very fast in fwd direction. You can get around this by adding some weight to the nose of the helicopter. I used some sticky tape and a few ball bearings. This gives the helicopter much better forward. BUT DONT DO THIS UNTIL YOU ARE GOOD AT FLYING. I also bought an Eagle Pro Helipad, which is slightly bigger than the helicopter and makes for some fun landings. Link to helipad - http://www.amazon.com/Remote-Control-Helicopter-Landing-Pad/dp/B00SAP2CBW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1440458876&sr=8-1&keywords=Helipad Couple of tips to save you a headache: ⁃ Dont put the helicopter away with a flat battery, it will slowly discharge over time and cause the battery to overdischarge and this causes permanent damage. It should be stored with a full battery. I found this out the hard way! ⁃ Give the battery 10-15mins to cool down before putting it on the USB charger. Dont use the charger on the remote, it will drain the AA batteries fast. I also found this out the hard way! ⁃ If youre a beginner, the first thing you should do is put the heli on a hard surface(not carpet), give it a small amount of throttle without taking off. You will see if the helicopter needs to be trimmed. If the helo is spinning either left or right, adjust the trim wheel until the helicopter doesnt spin left or right.

So my kids and I got into IR helicopters this year and each bought one. We have a 108g, 107g, 119g, and 026g. All of those ones fly great. They are super stable and have a more than acceptable battery life. My younger son picked out this cool looking 111g and based on the reviews we bought one. The first one at least flew, but after a couple of minutes the tail rotor seized up and it was uncontrollable. We charged it up and tried several more times, but the tail rotor never worked again. I could feel the motor resisting when I spun the rotor by hand, unlike the other ones. Again, it had great reviews, so we returned it an bought another, and I told my son it was just a fluke. Until the second one arrived, it flew for literally 10 seconds after which it simply fell from the sky. So we thought maybe it was just something in the charging cycle as it seemed to be without power to fly, and so we charged it back up. This time it flew for maybe 30 seconds, and did the same thing. After that we've tried to charge it several times. The red light on the charger goes out for a while and eventually comes back on, so it appears that it is charging. However, it has never flown again. We have tried other remotes (we have several), and have even tried this 111 remote on the 107 (works perfectly) so it's not the remote it's the heli itself. After a closer look I can clearly see there is a wire pinched in the body at the tail rotor, the shell doesn't seem to fit together properly and the little IR charger at the bottom seems to be pushed around on the board, and is sticking out the bottom of the heli body at about a 45 degree angle. If I had to guess I'd say both 111g I received had a controller board inside that was not custom made for this body shell. They appears to be legit and not clones and came in a real Syma box, but they certainly don't live up to my other Syma Helis, two of which are "dancer" versions and have never given me a single issue. Our recommendation is avoid this model and instead get a s107g or an s108g, both are superior in all ways to this s111g.

Right out of the box this Syma S111G flies nice and smooth. This helicopter is perfect for a beginner. A few helicopters my husband has gotten lately have taken a bit getting used to but this one just had such easy handling. It is very easy to control and fly around the house. It's a very well balanced helicopter. With another Syma we have I had to shut off our A/C in the house because just a little gust of air would blow it out of control. On a full charge we get a good 10 minutes or so of fly time which isn't bad at all. This is a solid helicopter. It can run into walls, get slammed on the floor with some failed attempts at proper landings, and still be perfectly fine. Also, it can even take off on it's side which my husband and I thought was pretty cool. I went to go pick it up to put in the upright position and he ended up taking right off while it was down. With his helicopters he loves practicing his landing on his Eagle Pro Helipad: Remote Control Helicopter Landing Pad - LED Lights Installed - Suitable for RC Helicopters, Quadcopters, Drones, Syma Helicopters. This helipad gives him the full experience along with this Syma S111G helicopter. The helipad is an excellent addition and I highly recommend it to anyone looking at this helicopter. While my husband charges his helicopter he keeps it nicely displayed right on the Eagle Pro Helipad. When the Syma S111G is ready to fly the Eagle Pro Helipad lights up and is ready for his landing practice. Overall, this is a great helicopter for beginners and experienced flyers alike. It is tons of fun, very well made, and a fantastic price!

This helicopter is "ok" because the Syma S109G Apache AH-64 3.5-Channels Mini Indoor Helicopter (also on Amazon) is much better in my opinion (e.g., faster, more control, more agile than the coast guard model). As far as the Coast Guard S111G helicopter, there are two concerns. One, the charging port is on the BOTTOM of the aircraft, therefore you have to lay the copter on its side to charge. No big deal, but having the charge port on the side (like the S109G Apache) just "feels" better and you can lay your copter upright. Two, the on/off switch is on the bottom as well. Again, no big deal. The flight speed of this Coast Guard copter seems slower and less agile than the S109G Apache, but I guess that would be more true to life as you would expect an S109G Apache to be more agile than a Coast Guard copter in real life. In addition, when starting to fly this unit, it does not seem to be as balanced so at times the copter will tilt to one side prior to takeoff and the rotor blades will hit the floor. Also, watch out when you slide the copter and controller out of the box. There is nothing securing the controller and if you pull it out the wrong side, it can fall out and crack your toe. Also if you have difficulty pulling the Styrofoam case out, pull the black plastic handle up all the way as it is preventing the Styrofoam from coming out smoothly. SPECIAL BATTERY CARE: In general, these helicopters use a special battery in the copter itself called a "Lithium Polymer" (or "LiPo") battery. Apparently there are special charging and discharging requirements which are different than other kinds of rechargeable batteries, if not followed, your battery might degrade quickly. 1) HEAT APPARENTLY DEGRADES THE BATTERY. Therefore after flying the copter, the battery gets hot, so you should wait 10 to 15 minutes before charging it or else it will overheat and degrade. Same goes with after you charge it. Once fully charged, the battery may be hot, so you should let it cool down for 10 to 15 minuted before flying it to prevent overheating and thus battery degradation. 2) DO NOT TOTALLY DISCHARGE. If the energy level in the battery falls below 20%, this may also irreparably degrade the battery, meaning it will no longer accept a charge at all and you will need to purchase a new battery and solder it in. How do you know when that "20%" point is reached? The copter will start to fly only a few inches off the ground and will not flyer any higher. As soon as that happens STOP FLYING and let your battery cool down and then recharge. If you continue to fly until all power is gone, the battery may be irreparably damaged. [Note: this info is all second-hand...I learned the hard way as I quickly degraded the battery on the Apache S109G] 3) DO NOT OVERCHARGE or leave unattended while charging. LiPo batteries can apparently explode and catch fire if overcharged. Other battery care info is found here: [web site address deleted?] HOW TO FLY TWO COPTERS AT THE SAME TIME. a) turn both copters and both controllers off. b) separate both sets of copters and controllers a distance of approximately 10 feet (this is arbitrary), c) set the first controller to channel "A", place the first copter you want to program approximately 3 inches from the controller and then turn the controller on and then turn the copter on (in that order), d) wait at least 10 seconds for the copter to accept the signals from the first controller, e) then go to your second copter and do the same except this time set the controller to channel "B", turn the controller on, put copter in close proximity to the second controller, then turn that copter on, wait 10 seconds for it to accept the "B" signal. If all goes well both copters should only respond to their respective controllers.

The transmitter doesn’t work. Left a question two days ago still waiting for a reply. Left me with a disappointed birthday boy and $60 less in pocket:(

Excellent model but a couple details omitted which would have put it over the top: white window frames on the front and upper windows and blackened rearmost windows. Other than that really well done.

Very quick delivery. Flew like a dream, hovers well and as such makes for an easy learning curve. We did encounter a small glitch which thankfully we were able to correct. That glitch was a poor soldering connection at the battery. We did remove the outer casing which the ordinary loayman might not be capable of doing as this is ultra miniature work. Once problem was corrected we are in the air again.

I have 2 Syma helicopters, one that looks like an Apache and this one which has now been recycled. The helicopter would always lose power in mid flight and fly either into a person, or something else. This was not user error, simply a lose of power that I cannot explain. Syma make a great product so maybe I had the lemon of the batch.

The helicopter worked well at first, but quickly broke. I was dissapointed in the quality.