Sky News has its Sky News Helicopter and, er, Batman has a batplane. With Christmas coming up and wish lists being written, Vibe tested out two candidates to be our new Shopper Chopper.
Without further ado, get to the chopper!
THIS IS NOT A TOY, the packaging on the DJI Phantom FC40 warns very clearly – they weren’t kidding.
And it’s not really a surprise, who spends £370 on a toy? This quadcopter, drone - call it what you will - is a special bit of kit capable of taking your breath away.
But it needs to be used responsibly.
The first flight left me feeling like a tornado was ripping through my stomach and my heart beating fast and heavy like an Artic hail storm on a car windscreen.
We read all of the instructions meticulously and yet one nudge of the joystick sent the beast careering sideways and attempts to bring it back under control took it further away and higher in the sky as my face drained of colour and it landed with a thump somewhere it shouldn’t have.
No-one was hurt – perhaps it was fortunate we started it out a fair distance from civilisation.
It is testament to the build quality that there was a second flight and it was tamed slowly after a bit of practice and being acquainted with the FULL instructions (the photocopy our tester arrived with missed a vital page, it transpired).
It swooped across the sky nimbly, hovering obediently and gaining not a few admirers.
SEE VIDEO BELOW:
One older lady was besotted with it, more predictably so were a handful of teenagers. You try not to fly it near people, but they will flock to it.
Assembly instructions were confusing so we had to resort to an online video guide to put it together.
Many hands did not make light work of assembly
It even came with a cool camera which you can hook up to your phone for a first person view while it’s in the air and that was staggeringly impressive, clear and easy to control.
Before flying, we read then re-read the instructions and heeded the safety advice, taking it away from buildings and people and out of protected airspace before we attempted to fly.
A wise move, it turned out.
All I can recommend is doing all of the safety checks yourself and taking it somewhere REALLY remote for a practice. At first, it is tricky so you should be wary and, for god’s sake, read all of the instructions.
Maplin doesn’t sell the FC40 to under 18s for obvious reasons and you should think hard before you get one yourself. This is not a toy.
How we rated the DJI Phantom FC40 Quadcopter: **** Simply incredible if properly set up and flown safely and responsibly.
The DJI Phantom FC40 Quadcopter is available at Maplin, £369.99.
Getting to groips with the smaller M Tech drone
M TECH SPY DRONE QUAD
Now, this IS a toy.
At £59.99 on eBay, it’s not an especially cheap toy but everything about it says ‘fun’.
The M Tech Spy Drone Quad admittedly sounds MI5-y at first, but would MI5 really call a spy drone a spy drone? No, they wouldn’t.
Handily this little tyro can be flown inside so the risks were considerably lower.
It took minimal set-up (I had to put batteries in) and there wasn’t much literature. What there was came written in pidgin English.
First of all, we sent it flying into the ceiling. No harm done to the ceiling or, visibly, to our little ‘copter. It was jaded after though.
Fleetingly, we got it off the ground but controlling it was tough and it never quite had the va-va-voom of before.
We couldn’t manage to get the camera working, either.
How the M Tech Spy Drone Quad rated: * – Great size. Would be really cool if it worked properly.
M:Tech Spy Drone Quad is available on eBay, typically £59.99.
Look! The M Tech did hover a bit
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