The little 1SQis packaged rather well (at left). This is the perfect box to use for transportation to a flying field, but why would you do that? It’s perfectly suited to flying in your living room or small backyard. A nifty battery charger (above center) is included, it plugs into any USB port on your computer, laptop, or even your cable TV box! Be sure to use the usual Li-Po battery charging safety
er’s manual is pretty comprehensive and, af- ter about 20 minutes of reading and fiddling with the program functions, I thought I had a pretty good place to start.
By advancing the throttle slowly the lit- tle copter started to rise. The thing then shot across the room and crashed into the dining room table. I figured, “that’s just great, I got three seconds of flying time and I destroyed it.” Not so! This little bugger seems bullet proof. I have about three hours of flying time on it now and have flown it into brick walls, landed in a pud- dle, and even stumbled over my own feet and stepped on it. It just keeps on going. I haven’t even replaced a rotor blade yet. By the way, a full set of replacement blades are included.
One thing to be mindful of though, when you do crash…and you will…check the mo- tors on the end of each of the booms. They can slip down in their mounts causing the
precations: never leave the battery unattended while charging and place it in a fireproof charging bag. The included 3.7V 250 mAh battery is good for about 5 to 6 minutes of flying. Buy a few extra to extend your fun time! Nothing could be easier than installing the AnyLink module (above right); plug it in and attach to the back of your transmitter with the supplied hook and loop material.
rotor blade to bind with the frame. Simply make sure the motor is pushed up fully. Back to flying: I knew I had a handful here and my wife shot me a glance that said, “Don’t be flying that thing into the new TV or crash it into my treasured curio cabinet. Take your new toy outside to play!” It’s kind of funny how a spouse can say so much with one look. It was a dead calm, sunny afternoon so I retreated to the backyard. I had a bit more success with hovering once I had more room to play with and I was able to get the copter out of the turbulent ground effect. These four little rotors throw around a lot of wind.
Something was still not right as the little
beast was a bit of a handful. I considered the fact that I’m used to flying airplanes ... nice, slow, stable airplanes. The axis of controls for a heli had been something quite alien to me. I knew my transmitter could help; after
all it has all sorts of buttons and adjustable settings.
At this point I swallowed my pride and re- treated to the internet. I’m a regular follower of the information sharing forums like RC Groups. I found a few people talking about quadcopters and posted a simple question— How do I tame this thing? I received sugges- tions very quickly and I was able to adjust my rates and gyro settings to better suit my abil- ity. I won’t go in to these details because it will be different for every radio and every pilot. Bottom line, don’t be afraid to ask for help. Heli-Max has a winner here. The 1SQ seems to be indestructible and best of all it’s a load of fun. I’ll conclude by saying that if you are a hotshot heli flyer or a pure neo- phyte like I am, this little quadcopter will provide hours of enjoyment. It may sound like a cliché but if I could achieve success, anybody can. Maybe the Editor is not so crazy after all.
The direct drive configuration is simple and rugged (above left), but check the motor mount after any crash or hard landing as the motor could shift down in the mount causing the rotor blade to bind on the casing. The 1SQis designed in the X configuration (above right), making it very stable but at the same time
FLYING MODELS
very manuverable. The forward rotors are orange and this helps with orientation when flying, but it still gets hard to see at distances beyond 25 feet. Make a note of the blade pitch at each position and be sure to use the proper replacement when necessary.
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