Picoo-Z - Tandem-Z

This is a logical evolution of the original single-rotor Picoo Z, which set a new standard for remote control helicopter price/preformance. Its design is a fascinating departure from conventional solutions, and has great educational merit.

With helicopters, performance means stability, not speed. It is said that aeroplanes want to fly, helicopters want to fall..... And that is doubly true of models, which are much twitchier than bigger ones.

Full-scale twin-rotor machines like the military Chinook demonstrate much improved pitch stability over ordinary single-rotors, and the twin-rotor Picoo benefits from this. If you have tried the single-rotor Picoo-Z and found it a bit lively, this is much more stable and easier to fly, especially for beginners. There are also some clear fins (not shown on the illustrations) which increase the damping in yaw, so that the aircraft is less nervous when turning. The fins also help with anti-torque. Nice one.

Chinooks use contra-rotation to cancel the torque from the engine - front rotor turns one way and the back one turns opposite so the helo does not spin around. No need for a Sikorsky-style tail rotor.

But this 2-rotor Picoo uses a novel approach - both rotors turn the same way and appear to be identical to the rotors on our 1-rotor Picoos. That ensures that spares are available and will have saved a few bob developing a rotor that turns the other way. So to stop it spinning they have leaned the front rotor to one side, the back rotor to t'other side. Clever.

This cancels the torque quite effectively, and the 'rudder' control tilts the front rotor assembly left and right in order to steer.

With the second rotor we gain some 'pitch' control - moving the right stick forwards now makes the aircraft fly forwards. Moving it right and left initiates a turn, and it will turn quite tight but well controlled.

The left stick is the up-and-down control and there is power to spare - on one trip outside it went up like a Guy Fawkes rocket. Scary.

But.... Outside is not the best place for most of these small, light models. Any air movement at all will blow it away, and the sun can interfere with the Infra-Red remote control, trust me, you don't want that! On a dead calm overcast day you might be OK, but....

Fortunately this model is steady enough and controllable enough to fly well indoors. Taller rooms are best, and less furniture is obviously better - we find bedrooms can be good for soft landings on the bed.

It's quite tough, no breakages yet, but the paint suffers from impact with hard stuff, so it does pay to pick a soft surface to fly from.

We would recommend setting up the two trim controls so that it flies forward very slowly whilst circling gently. This means you can concentrate on getting the hang of the up-down control without worrying too much about walls and things. Then maybe try some tighter circles, figure-8s and finally some more speed. It is fast enough to get out of hand if you are not on top of it.

Over a couple of years we have bought lots of these small models in the family - the Picoo, the Alany Mosquito, the newer Mosquito with 2-blade rotors, many derivatives of these designs. they are all great fun, but this Picoo is even better than the new 2-blade Mozzie.

Strongly recommended for model flyers of all ages - ideal for beginners too.

Having owned 3 PicooZ helicopters, I thought I ought to give the TandemZ a try. It's more versatile than the PicooZ in terms of control, although trickier to master. I found that in a small room, it's easier to control forward motion using the forward/backward trim than with the joystick. The experience is somewhat more exciting for the addition of forward motion to this model; whereas the PicooZ kind of randomly hovers forward, the TandemZ zips around the room. Expect more extreme crashes when it goes wrong!

I bought this as a birthday present for my husband and have had great fun watching him trying to master the art of flying!! We've both been amazed at how the helicopter has stood up to the number of crash landings and bouncing off walls and ceilings. Now he's getting the hang of flying it's been quite interesting to see how the helicopter works and responds to the controls, such as hovering for instance.
Highly recommended; in fact, it looks like his work mates are starting to drop hints to partners ready for Christmas.....