This is the quadcopter that kicked started this hobby for me and it goes by the catchy title of the WL Toys v959, it is a great entry level hobby level quadcopter that can be picked up for ~£40 if you don’t mind a couple of weeks wait while it makes its way from china.

It a ready to fly (RTF) quadcopter that comes with everything you need in the box (except batteries for the transmitter), its even got a, albeit low quality, camera on the bottom that records directly to a SD card. While the included transmitter doesn’t have incredible build quality its fully functional and does a great job.

So what makes its so good, basically, if you are looking to cheaply get into the hobby then this is perfect. Previously I referred to this as a ‘hobby’ level quadcopter and this is for various reasons, firstly this means that spare parts for it are readily and cheaply available online and as anyone who has flown, or at least attempt to, any RC flying craft its only a matter of time before something breaks. With other generic ‘toy’ type crafts this would be the end of you fun, however with the V959 you can spend a couple of quid on eBay and have replacement parts sent to you door.

Next, its got a surprising amount of features; the camera can be remotely activated from the transmitter in either video or snapshot mode, its got ‘headlights’ that can be turned on and off and it has multiple power modes, low power for when your indoors and just practising or higher power modes for when you are flying outside and might have some wind to compete against. Now for the best feature, its has a flip button! That’s right, all you need to do for you to be able to perform a full 360 flip with this is press the flip button and point the left stick in the direction you want it to flip. Great for showing off!

Finally, due to the popularity of these things there are hundreds of articles/videos online that go through various mods/tweaks/improvements that you make to your quadcopter. If you are interested into getting into the larger quadcopters then understanding how they work is crucial and this is a great way to learn.

Overall, great way to learn how quadcopters work, practice flying and doesn’t break the bank.

David