*Warning* Do not buy the Skyrover RC helicopters.

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Crabber85
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*Warning* Do not buy the Skyrover RC helicopters.

Post by Crabber85 » Sun Dec 14, 2014 5:49 pm

I bought one for myself Friday night from Wal*Mart and played with it for about fifteen minutes on the front lawn and everything was fine.I got up early Sat and went back outside to fly it around some more and I got it lifted off the ground about a foot and it quit responding to the controller and went up up and away it got so high up that it disappeared I went looking for it but it was so high up that the crosswinds caught it and carried further than I could walk so all in all I wasted twenty dollars.I went online to see if this was a common problem and sure enough it is everyone who has bought one of these SkyRover Stalker RC helicopters has reported the same thing happening.This suggests to me that the company who makes them "AULDEY" is using cheap transmitters in the contoller and the helicopter.The manual states to fly the unit out side in bright cloudless days and to keep it away from ceiling fans and such.It also makes the statement that the helicopter only has a maximum flight hight of ten feet and the controller has a range nearly double that but this is clearly some bad information because the helicopter quickly goes blind to the controller and then does what it wants to do.This has happened to 100% of the people who were just dumb enough like me to purchase one of these units and the stores that are selling them are doing so knowing that they are faulty and much to my chagrin you can't get these stores to do a refund without the helicopter which is insane because they know that the product is bad but wont do anything to rectify the situation.Some folks thought that it might have been the sunlight messing with the IR sensor and that was causing the malfunction but this even happens at night or at dusk when most people like to take them outside so it has to be something other than the IR sensor faulting which is logical right so the current belief is that its actually the smart hover program built in to these units thats malfunctioning it takes over to put the heli into a stable autopilot hover at ten feet over the ground but doesn't stop at ten feet it just keeps adujsting the hight of the heli and when the smart hover is auto engaged it disables the throttle on the controller so you can't manually correct the problem before it gets out of range.I feel ripped off that was my hard earned babysitting money down the drain....
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Keg
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*Warning* Do not buy the Skyrover RC helicopters.

Post by Keg » Thu Dec 18, 2014 6:32 am

One of the things they want to regulate in drones is how they respond if contact is lost.I've heard of people losing expensive drones that got too far away and in the absence of further instructions, they kept doing what they were last told to do.Imagine if they crashed into an aircraft or a person on the way down.

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Crabber85
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*Warning* Do not buy the Skyrover RC helicopters.

Post by Crabber85 » Mon Dec 22, 2014 7:53 am

@Keg, its an issue called controller blindness the unit basically stops seeing the signal from the remote control and just keeps doing as you said what it was last instructed to do and this issue is not just isolated to a few events its happening about 70% of the time with all RC aircraft I've even seen a guy loose radio control of a real helicopter that was outfitted with RC control sensors, he got it off the ground at the air port and it went up up and away flying out over the city disappearing from view completely and the guy lost radio control over it at that point and it never came back.His buddy even made the statement that a forty thousand dollar helicopter was a lot of money to just up and loose over controller blindness.Imagine what happened when that full sized helicopter finally ran out of fuel and crash landed???RC aircraft should be regulated a little tighter and the RF or IR tech that goes into them should be overhauled to lessen the risk of the unit going blind to the controller signals.This issue is also know as a flyaway or breakaway and once it happens the chances of finding the unit unless its equipped with a GPS return home function are so low that your getting into the negative scale of odds.I was going to try to get a refund on my now useless controller but because I don't have the helicopter the store wont even acknowledge the issue so so much for that.
Hi I have autism so I tend to answer questions very directly and with little emotion so please don't think I'm being rude.
#Autism Speaks.

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Keg
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*Warning* Do not buy the Skyrover RC helicopters.

Post by Keg » Wed Dec 24, 2014 4:37 pm

I'm guessing it would have been in the news if anyone noticed the landing.Here's one that was noticed but it was probably not the one you are mentioning:http://7online.com/archive/9270668/EXCLUSIVE: SMALL DRONE CRASH LANDS IN MANHATTANOctober 3, 2013 4:36:29 AM PDTBy Jim HofferNEW YORK -- A small helicopter drone flying high above buildings on the East side of Manhattan crash landed just feet away from a businessman during the Monday evening rush hour.The drone is small but the FAA says it should not have been flying hundreds of feet above a crowded Manhattan sidewalk.The businessman who almost took a direct hit from the unmanned device, recovered its video card from the debris and then reached out to us.The video from the crashed drone shows it taking off from a high-rise terrace in Midtown Manhattan on Monday. It's evening rush hour and below thousands of New Yorkers are heading home, unaware that 20 to 30 stories above them, a small, 3-pound radio-controlled helicopter with a camera is flying overhead."Choosing their own personal enjoyment over any of the consequences," a businessman, who asked not to be identified, told us.CLICK HERE to see the full video of from the drone's camera.The financial analyst contacted us after the drone crash landed just feet away from him as he was walking home Monday near Grand Central Station."My first thought was someone has done something reckless and could have put people in danger," he said.The drone's camera records video of some of the city's most iconic buildings: The Chrysler, Met-Life, and Grand Central. It's clear though the operator is inexperienced as he loses control of the unmanned aircraft several times, slamming it into high rises. The flight 300-to-400 feet above Midtown lasts about 3 minutes before it strikes the corner of a building and crashes to the street below, missing the businessman by feet:"They made conscious decision to fly something they don't have control over obviously through the most crowded city, most crowded time of the day and I can't believe there's no law against this," he said.We've learned the drone is called the Phantom Quadcopter because of its four plastic rotor blades. It can be bought on the internet for under $500 dollars. Although small, the FAA considers it an "unmanned aircraft system."A spokeswoman tells us, "We do not currently permit the operation of unmanned aircraft over congested areas like Manhattan.""The people who did it are clearly identifiable on the video," he said.

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Crabber85
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*Warning* Do not buy the Skyrover RC helicopters.

Post by Crabber85 » Sat Dec 27, 2014 5:05 pm

@Keg, no the full sized heli that the guy lost on the youtube video was never reported in the news at the time which i found odd because an aircraft the size of the one he lost should have at least made the local news that night.I do know that a law got passed in several cities including my own that makes flying drones in, over or around them illegal.There was a motion made in the senate two years ago to make it federally illegal to own or operate a drone in the civilian sector that motion is still being considered at this time.Its a matter of privacy because anybody flying one of these drones can use them to photograph or video you without your permission and can even be used to hack your router, smart tvs and even phones using wifi access.I also know that the FAA is in the middle of a huge legal battle to prevent users from flying drones at all since they pose such a huge risk to commercial air traffic.
Hi I have autism so I tend to answer questions very directly and with little emotion so please don't think I'm being rude.
#Autism Speaks.

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