I’ve just received a PicooZ as a birthday gift from a friend by post.

Thanks Vich!

In the past, I’ve seen many kids playing with it, but I was never tempted to buy one myself. I thought I was too old for it. I had fun back in the days, playing with RC cars, racing them and modifying them. I even won a competition for modifying one of them. I guess that these new Micro copters are taking over the RC cars in this generation. Moreover, they do bring a sparkle to any kids’ eyes.

I thought that the PicooZ was just a waste of money. But I was so wrong. It does look cheap and it is not made of solid materials, but the fun you get out of it worth every single penny.

The thing which I hate about it is that you can’t make it move forward or backward. It only goes up, down and rotate clockwise and anti-clockwise. However, some people with loads of practice did find ways to get it moving forward. If you are one of them, please let me know how! Just add a comment.

The reason why the PicooZ does not move forwards & backwards / left & right is because in the design feature does not allow either collective or user-input cyclic control, which would have allowed the user to freely fly it forwards & backwards / left & right on demand throughout the horizontal plane. The rotor blades on a fixed plane with a simple rocking hinge, and have no swash plate. Because of this limitation, the user must add left or right control inputs and rely on torque-induced precession (also known as gyroscopic precession) to transition to forward flight. I’m still struggling to master this.

The specs of the one I’ve got are:

• Product Dimensions: Main Rotor Diameter 130mm (5.25″)
• Length 170mm (6.5″) excluding rotors. Rear Rotor diameter 30mm (1.25″)
• Product Weight: Only 10g, including Flight Battery
• Rechargeable Flight Battery: High capacity integral Lithium Polymer battery
• Charger: Integral Transmitter/Charger supplied with LED indicator/Auto shut off
• Simply plug in and charge, with easy to use connections
• Charging Time: 20-30 minutes for full charge
• Flight Duration:5-10 minutes between charges
• Batteries Required: 6 x 1.5v AA Alkaline Batteries for Transmitter/Charger
• Control Specification: Supplied completely assembled and already charged ready-to-fly, with pre-installed 2 Channel Proportional Infra Red Control System
• Take off, hover and descend, turn left and right with fixed forward movement

After half a day, I’ve already broken its tail rotor due to many critical crash landings. Luckily there was a spare one in the box.

Verdict: It is a good toy. I wish its battery lasts longer (about 30min).

Hey, if you mange to destroy it accidentally, you can use it as a table fan. Its main rotor is quite powerful. More powerful than a CPU fan.