Air Hogs Helix Sentinel Drone Kit

We purchased this for our son, that he paid for with his own birthday money from family. Reviews were very good for the most part. But reviews were also from people with free product trial.I am now returning the product after about a week. Here's why:Pros: The case is very nice! Sturdy, well designed and easy to put drone and controls in and out. And the VR headset and controller seem to be of good quality. Overall, drone does fly easy. My kids and I were both able to fly and control drone pretty easy. It does seem to need continuous adjustment and if there is more than a light breeze outside, it can be a little harder to control. I almost sent it into the street once!Cons: 1) Battery life for flying time was only 4-5 minutes if you are using your smartphone with FPV mode. It really drains battery. If you just fly drone, flying time seems to be more like 7-8 minutes. But the whole point of this drone is the FPV (first person view) flying mode. 2) Charging battery takes a LONG time; close to an hour it seemed to get a full charge. Way too long to recharge in the field when playing. So basically you have one flight and then you are done for a while. 3) We bought this for the VR headset and the app. VR headset is good quality. App is easy to use, but does not always sync. And when drone gets more than 40 or 50 feet away, it often loses the sync. Additionally, my son wanted this so he could fly drone using the headset - to get the full VR experience. REALITY CHECK FOR PARENTS - this isn't practical. It looks cool on YouTube, but it is very, very hard to fly for a novice. Imagine putting a paper towel tube up to your eye and then trying to navigate around your house without bumping into something. It is hard for kids.Finally, we paid full price on Amazon ($189.00 I think at the time), only to discover in less than a week price had dropped by down to $127.99 dollars. I know we could have gotten a price adjustment from Amazon, but at that point I could tell that this expensive TOY was going to spend more time in the closet than flying outside. Not Amazon's fault - just buyer be aware.PARENTS: I would not recommend this product given expense and cons described above. I tried to explain this to my son, but he really, really wanted this Air Hog. Lesson learned. If you want a starter quadracopter, do your research. There are other less expensive options available to start. If you really want a quadracopter for the full FPV-VR flying experience, be prepared to spend a lot more.Hope this helps

I'm just going to get to the point. It worked great...until the end of 2018. At that point they shut down the servers.Why is that important?In order to use the FPV goggles and the advanced features this drone can do, it links to the drone through your phone wifi. To get the two talking to each other, you need to use the app. To use the app, you need to download it. It is still available on the itunes store and google store, but only installs on certain OS's.So, you download and install the app. It asks you to make a login profile with your name, password, and email address. When you click the "Login" button, it goes nowhere. See photo below. This is because the servers were shut down.Basically, without being able to get through the password/server login wall, you cannot access the app. Without the app, you cannot use the FPV function, access the camera remotely, or use any of the cool functions that are programmed into the app (like do a circle around your current position while holding altitude).Therefore, if you buy this item, realize you are just buying a remote quad that can hold altitude and has sensors to stop it from crashing into a wall. You cannot use the FPV goggles with this quad. You can use them for other VR/FPV things because they are actually pretty good and include adjustable focus and eye width, but you cannot use them with this quad.Per the listing:Live HD Streaming Right to your Device! - NopeExperience First Person Views! - NopeSmooth, Easy to Operate RC Drone! - trueHelix Sentinel Drone features an HD 120-degree wide-angle lens camera - true720p Wi-Fi streaming video - nopeand the ability to record to your phone and the included 4GB Micro SD card. - this does still work as there are physical buttons on the controller that tell it to record snapshots and video to the removable memory card.Experience HD live streaming on your Smart Device in 2 view modes: Mounted on your controller or inserted in the goggles for a 1st person view! - nopeSo what do you get:A stable flyerOK remoteless than 5 minute fly time on a 45 minute charge, and NO removable batteryuseless FPV goggles (for this quad)ok record capability still worksan 8 pound carrying case of solid plasticI spoke with Spinmaster 11/12/19 and this is the response (cut and pasted):Hello,Thank you for contacting Spin Master Customer Care!Regrettably, we are unable to process a replacement Air Hogs for Helix Sentinel Drone, as it was purchased a few years ago and is no longer within its warranty period. We do not manufacture or sell this drone anymore, because it's no longer compatible with the app. However, Amazon still sells it, because they have a lot inventory of the drone leftover. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.I chatted with Amazon today 11/16/19 and explained it to the Customer Care rep. They said they would send this info to the right team to handle it. I'm sure it will still be up there 6 months from now, but we will see!

My original purchase of this Quad was defective and would not hold a charge. I took the option of exchange with Amazon and I'm glad I did. Although this unit does not feature flips or stunts the unit is SUPER stable inside, like REALLY stable, responsive and just flat out fun flying around the house. Outside has been a mixed bag, but to be honest, I have only experienced a few non GPS (mostly higher speed racing drones) that have been capable outside with any type of wind.If your looking for top notch FPV on this unit, you will probably be disappointed, its functional but thats it.The biggest issue with this unit and other Air Hog units is, there is no option to change batteries, and the flight time is short, 7 - 8 min. With that said, it sure is a fun 7 - 8 minutes. Because of the foam padding its been relatively safe to allow my 7yo to operate it, with supervision of course. So 4 stars from me, one taken off because the first one was defective and no ability to change batteries.