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Silverlit PicooZ Twin Blade 3 Channel Helicopter - TandemZ | 
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| Brand: SilverLit
Category: Toy
List Price: £44.99
Buy New: £31.49
You Save: £13.50 (30%)
New (18) from £27.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 102
Fragile: No
Batteries: 6
Batteries Included: No
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.1 x 6.7 x 3.2
MPN: 85653
Model: 85653
EAN: 4891813856535
ASIN: B001381O8U
Release Date: April 14, 2008
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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Product Description
Be warned. This is no ordinary radio controlled helicopter. This is the TandemZ. A full three channel, auto stable system with twin propellers and an advanced multi-role set-up that requires skill, brains and determination to master. In appearance, the TandemZ closely resembles the iconic Sea Knight Helicopter, a vehicle famed for its assault transportation of combat troops and its ability to land on aircraft carriers. The twin propeller system is a striking feature of this unique style of helicopter, and providing greater stability, greater control and added power when airborne. With the TandemZ being a full 3 channel radio controlled unit, users are able to control the flight altitude, forwards and backwards movement and the direction of flight. Easier said than done. The handheld control unit (which doubles as the charging base for the TandemZ) is more complex than the standard R/C chopper, incorporating controls for Yaw trimming (direction), Pitch trimming (hovering angle), Throttle (altitude), Direction (forward/backward movement) and an additional headlight switch for flying in the dark. With guidance from the instruction booklet and a little practice, users will quickly appreciate the added control that the TandemZ offers and once mastered, can attempt more challenging stunts than ever before.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
Big Boys Toy August 26, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
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.....
Second helicopter- early report August 20, 2008
Hello again,
here's my early review of the TandemZ twin rotor Sea knight/Chinook from Picoo.
As with the first report I would qualify the various star ratings ive given with further detail but since ive done this already in the PicooZ Metro City and they remain the same- just have a look at the first bit of that one for further explination.
As with the first, if you want a quick snapshot review here it is:-
Great fun, more visually imposing, louder and powerful than the PizooZ chopper but much less forgiving thrust/lift when your not on your game. Easier to point and shoot when the trim is sorted out. A longer learning curve involved to master and expect more catastrophic crashes while you get to grips with it but that's why you want one isn't it?
Ok, so I got the PicooZ Metro City a couple of days ago and i'm clearly no master pilot but what follows is the thoughts of someone who's had 24 hours with a Tandem and 72 with a PicooZ.
Hardware- the 'copter you know all about if youve read the other reviews here so i'll just add a bit about the RC unit. Instead of a single trim toggle just under the direction(right hand) stick as with the PicooZ we get two seperate trims in the form of circular dials which are positioned to fall naturally under your index fingers when you hold the unit. This means you dont have to remove your right thumb from the right stick to trim the 'copter- just dial in your trim and away you go. The left trim controls static pitch - i.e how quickly the copter moves forward/backwards without additional input from the right stick(which has a removable idiot grid over it when it arrives- stops all the scary advanced diagonal turn and move combinations that a beginner should be wary of)
Start-up - ive had a few problems with this. Power up RC Unit then power up 'copter at which point the rotors go crazy and the landing light comes on. This can be corrected by holding the copter in your hand, switching on then pressing the landing light button which cuts the light and for some reason the power .From there put it down and crack on as normal. Weird but there you go.
Thrust/lift- personally I find this a lot harder to get right. The toy weighs much more so needs a more positive and progressive punch of power to get airborn. Having done so you need to ease off quite quickly (unless you use it in a church or somewhere with loads of verticle space) as it rockets up quite rapidly. It really requires quite some practice and skill in a normal height room to lift it , ease off but without killing it and then easing the throttle back in to keep height. The weight of it means that if your a bit jerky with it you've had it and the floor beckons!
The single blade PicooZ will forgive you far more lapses of concentration with thrust than the Tandem Z will and I can only put this down to weight.
Trim- because of the additional concentration required to get airborn and stable the trim is going to have to wait a second longer. That second can be catastrophic though as constant crashing and a more sophisticated front rotor action means you have to get the trim sorted qucker or you'll bin it!...again.
Untrimmed, the Tandem has a propensity to yaw and pitch off after liftoff very quickly and this, as already suggested means, the Tandem favours a larger area to get it sorted out in.
I'm afriad I can only give scant report of the third channel- i.e. forward as I crashed so much I think ive upset the front servo in it's casing so that even a fully retarded trim has it dashing forward and the turning control barely works at all.
What I can say though is that I can see how this offers more of a challenge and a reward if you can get it going well. It doesn't do the dip-a-bit-move-a-bit-spin-a-bit repeat that the single does and even though I virtually destroyed mine in one single day I can't really fault it.It's my lack of skill and finess and not the models failures that have caused it.
Am I going to get another and try again?
Does night follow day?
TandemZ July 29, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
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!
better than most !!! July 4, 2008
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
i have purchased several r/c helicopters/aircraft. this rates the best, i can control this better than the others. i am now looking for a larger outdoor model.
hours of entertainment.
i managed to dislodge front stabaliser within minutes, no need for this as i then found it much easier to control the helicopter. this is my favourite SO FAR!!!!!
Two rotors can double your fun! June 10, 2008
20 out of 21 found this review helpful
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.
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