flyingcheesehead
Taxi to Parking
So with my kid being nuts about anything that flies, I've made winter a little more tolerable by having some flying toys around that can be used inside - everything from balsa rubber band powered stuff to tiny RC helicopters. He can't really fly any of it himself yet, but he loves watching me do it. "Hey hon, I have to play with flying toys because he likes it." 
So on Saturday, when we went to the EAA Family Flight Fest, they had one large room with a bunch of RC stuff flying around, including these little VTOL flying wings that I thought would be perfect. After spending some time on some RC sites, I found out what it was: The $60 Blade Inductrix Switch Air.
Now, I thought it'd be fun in the form I saw it, the VTOL flying wing:
But I quickly learned that it's very versatile: In about a minute, you can convert it from the flying wing into a micro-quadcopter (My big hand and an AppleTV remote provided for scale):
And with less than $20 in parts, you can convert it into the original Blade Inductrix Switch, which can also take the form of a hovercraft:
All of the modes (wing, quadcopter, hovercraft) have various ability levels programmed in, so you can either concentrate on just having fun, or improving your skills. I haven't gone fully aerobatic with it yet, but I'll probably try eventually.
It's highly modular, and all of the parts are available online if you crash it bad, but it seems pretty durable so far - I think the thing I'm most likely to damage is the foam wing. It looks like you could completely disassemble/reassemble in five minutes or less.
They come with a 150mAh battery and a USB charger, and you can buy 150mAh and 200mAh batteries that work with them. They only last about 4-5 minutes and take about 1/2 hour to fully charge, so you might want to get even more. The biggest drawback to the system is that it's hard to tell when to stop flying - There's a Low Voltage Cutoff mode that's indicated by reduced power and a flashing red light, and you're supposed to land immediately and charge, but they say that if you repeatedly fly to LVC that you'll damage the battery.
The good news is, the batteries are only about 6 bucks for the 150mAh and $7.49 for the 200mAh so that's not the end of the world, it just seems like an odd design choice to not alert you or cut things off a bit earlier.
Aside from just being versatile in terms of flying machines, there's also some additional options - You can add an FPV camera and broadcast to goggles, making it into a real-life racing game or a camera drone.
I'm really looking forward to messing around with this thing some more (uh, I mean, making my son happy!), and I think they're going to sell a ton of them. They're mostly unavailable online at the moment - Most places show them backordered until May, but my local Hobbytown store had several in stock. You can also order the Inductrix Switch and then get the foam wing separately (as a part) and you'll have the parts to do all three (I haven't bought the hovercraft parts yet).
So on Saturday, when we went to the EAA Family Flight Fest, they had one large room with a bunch of RC stuff flying around, including these little VTOL flying wings that I thought would be perfect. After spending some time on some RC sites, I found out what it was: The $60 Blade Inductrix Switch Air.
Now, I thought it'd be fun in the form I saw it, the VTOL flying wing:
But I quickly learned that it's very versatile: In about a minute, you can convert it from the flying wing into a micro-quadcopter (My big hand and an AppleTV remote provided for scale):
And with less than $20 in parts, you can convert it into the original Blade Inductrix Switch, which can also take the form of a hovercraft:
All of the modes (wing, quadcopter, hovercraft) have various ability levels programmed in, so you can either concentrate on just having fun, or improving your skills. I haven't gone fully aerobatic with it yet, but I'll probably try eventually.
It's highly modular, and all of the parts are available online if you crash it bad, but it seems pretty durable so far - I think the thing I'm most likely to damage is the foam wing. It looks like you could completely disassemble/reassemble in five minutes or less.
They come with a 150mAh battery and a USB charger, and you can buy 150mAh and 200mAh batteries that work with them. They only last about 4-5 minutes and take about 1/2 hour to fully charge, so you might want to get even more. The biggest drawback to the system is that it's hard to tell when to stop flying - There's a Low Voltage Cutoff mode that's indicated by reduced power and a flashing red light, and you're supposed to land immediately and charge, but they say that if you repeatedly fly to LVC that you'll damage the battery.
The good news is, the batteries are only about 6 bucks for the 150mAh and $7.49 for the 200mAh so that's not the end of the world, it just seems like an odd design choice to not alert you or cut things off a bit earlier.Aside from just being versatile in terms of flying machines, there's also some additional options - You can add an FPV camera and broadcast to goggles, making it into a real-life racing game or a camera drone.
I'm really looking forward to messing around with this thing some more (uh, I mean, making my son happy!), and I think they're going to sell a ton of them. They're mostly unavailable online at the moment - Most places show them backordered until May, but my local Hobbytown store had several in stock. You can also order the Inductrix Switch and then get the foam wing separately (as a part) and you'll have the parts to do all three (I haven't bought the hovercraft parts yet).
