The nice people at Hawkin sent me another drone.

http://www.hawkin.com/x15-drone

At £35 it's definitely an entry-level one, and it is quite small, but being Syma I expected it to work OK. It comes with the usual transmitter, four spare props, battery and charger.

Set up is just charging the lion battery from a USB port and putting a few batteries in the transmitter.

It's remarkably easy to fly, once you have figured out all the permutations of push switches. This is because it claims to have a built in barometer, just press one button and it will rise to about three feet up., you can then move it to various altitudes and it will hold them quite accurately, although if you use the flip button or manoeuvre it vigorously it may settle a foot or two higher or lower.

It has two modes. In standard mode it has a definite 'front end' and in headless mode it remembers where it pointed when you entered the mode. this is good for flying at a distance.

Because it is small and you aren't constantly trying to think about altitude, it is easy to fly indoors, I even had it doing loops indoors.

Outdoors is it surprisingly nippy, and if you put it to fly 'flat out' forwards it behaves rather like an RC aeroplane. I was able to do swift figure of eights around our garden, going slower I was able to circle the washing line. The 'loop' function as with all drones is a bit of a gimmick, but even so doing repeat flips in different directions impresses people who don't know how easy it is!

If you want to get someone a 'starter' drone I would recommend this one because (a) it's cheap (b) it's small enough to be unlikely to cause serious damage to people and property and (c) the altitude control means it is really easy to fly – if a youngster can steer an RC car, then they could fly one of these. Of course supervision is needed as even small whirling props can cause injuries.

Edited By Neil Wyatt on 12/11/2017 16:48:19

You're right. My helicopter is Syma but my best telescopes are Synta (via skywatcher/celestron).

neil