Air Hogs Aerosoar micro
Street Price: $39.99 US
Manufacturer: Spin Master / Tomitech
Mfgr's recommended min. age: 8+
Our recommended age range: none
Primary use: Indoors
Radio: n/a (infrared)
Includes:
- Assembled airplane
- Controller
- Spare rudder
- Spare propeller
- 4 AA batteries for the controller/charger
- (other colors)
Initial Impressions
(Note: This exact same plane is sold as the Air Hogs Aerosoar in North America and the Tomy / Tomitech Aerosoarer elsewhere. There is no difference between them other than the name.)
It shocked me that such a tiny plane could be made with full-function wireless remote control! The ability to fly a plane in a normal-sized room is something I've been looking for forever. How did they manage it with the Aerosoar? When you first take it out of the box, it's immediately obvious. It's a really, really lightweight plane with minimal parts. The wing & stabilizers are made from a very thin, soft, flexible foam that actually feels very flimsy. I wouldn't want to crash too hard or hit a wing against something hard. The motor os truly tiny and connects to the thin propeller with two super-thin plastic gears.
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I guess I'll have to be careful when I test it!
Preparing to Fly
To save even more weight, the Aerosoar doesn't use a charging jack like most micro RC planes & helicopters have. Instead, the main circuit board just has one small extension that sticks out the bottom of the plane, and with this, you plug the plane into the controller / charger like so:
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It takes less than a minute to fully charge the plane, then it gives a friendly musical chime to indicate and wags its tail (rudder) to let you know it's ready to go!
Testing
Fully charged, I gave the plane some throttle and a careful flick of the wrist to send it flying. Pretty quickly, though, it had made its way to the floor. It's designed to automatically circle to the left to make it easier to keep in a small room, but I felt it was going in too small of a circle, so I carefully bent the vertical stabilizer to be a little more straight. This helped with the steering, but it still wouldn't stay in the air. I could make two downward-spiralling loops around the room, but that's it. After a few of these attempts, the battery was already dead. I charged it up again, hoping it would be better on its second charge, but no. Four charges later, everything was still the same. It essentially flew like a glider that could be gently steered around in a couple of loops before it would crash-land.
Conclusion
Flying the Air Hogs Aerosoar was no fun, no fun at all. I paid for something that I could fly around the room, but I ended up with something that wasn't even as fun as a free-flight glider. Very, very disappointing.