Air Hogs Havoc Cyclone(Indoor Micro High Alpha/Aerobatic Slow Flyer)

[Vimana89]

I found this thing on Ebay and picked it up for about $37.00 including shipping and all. This is an older, discontinued model from like 2008. I was searching random air hogs planes one day and found some videos of this little craft, and it got me interested, so I had to see if I could hunt one down for the right price. These are difficult to find now, and go anywhere from $30 to $100. This plane is pretty much ready to fly out of the box, with transmitter and charging cable, and only requires mounting of the landing struts.

I love unique and unconventional RC aircraft and high alpha flyers, and there's a lot of days here I just can't fly outside because of the wind. I think this will be a fun diversion from the frustrations of building and flying larger RC planes. I plan to study this thing carefully, how it flies, where the proper CG is at, etc., because I think this could potentially be really cool scaled up. I will review when it arrives and I've had a chance to fly it.

 

[Vimana89]

Reserved for review

 

[Vimana89]

So this arrived a couple days back. No review because the plane will not power on or accept a charge from the charging cable on the transmitter. There is really no info on how to solve this, the product is something that has been discontinued for like 10 years. The hatch was glued shut so I popped it open to look in and messed the edges up a bit. Nothing looks overtly wrong, but one of the three wires from the motor has no insulation at all. I'm not sure whether this should be that way or not. I was pretty bummed and still am not happy, but I guess I'll just chalk it up as a loss. I checked over and over and read the instructions in painstaking detail over and over and tried to get it working, thinking it must be something I'm missing. I highly doubt that's the case and think this is just a dud or that some of the components didn't have a long shelf life. oh well.

I bought a couple other items I'll be reviewing soon instead(Hobby Zone Champ RTF, Fly Bear FX 805 super cheap 2 channel)

 

[Paracodespoder]

Battery might be completely dead, figure out the battery size and solder in or better yet put a connector in for new batteries. I had a small parrot rolling spider drone that after having it off and battery drained would no longer turn on, new battery brought it back on. Don’t give up on it yet.

 

[Vimana89]

I'll put it away until I'm proficient at soldering or can have somebody who is do it and show me. It's definitely worth saving, doesn't take up much space. Weathers clearing up a bit and it should stay pretty steady for a while, I've been flying my battered micro Trojan when I can. I'm looking forward to the two planes I have coming, they are both newer and more reliable. There's tons of spare parts available for the champ, and the fly bear is common to find and only $25