Megatech Avion FlyCloud Airplane, retail $33.32 / $23.32*
Manufactured by Megatech (www.megatech.com/)
Last updated 11-20-16
This isn't a flashlight, household lamp, Christmas light set, or other thing that glows, but since I love things that fly, what the hey.
I have onlyevaluatedafew remote controlled (RC) flying toys before, so please bear with me here.
This is a very small, lightweight, easy-to-fly remote controlled biplane. It fits in the palm of your hand, and is very light in weight (just 8.4 grams). It is designed to be flown indoors or outdoors; its construction is such that you won't gouge holes in walls or break lamps when you crash (note I said "WHEN", not "IF", because you WILL crash it at least a few times while learning to fly it!!!).
And yes, it really is a biplane, not a monoplane.
* This price is fromHeartland America where I ordered on the morning of 08-12-16.
SIZE
This toy is remarkably easy to use for an biplane...here's how to get it flying:
As with any rechargeable product, charge it first (see directly below), and then you can pretend to fly a dragonfly (well, that's what the kitty cat thinks it is).
1: On the left side of the biplane's fuselage (body) toward the front, there's a tiny on/off switch.
Use a fingernail to slide this switch toward the tail to the "on" position.
2: On the remote control, turn the "on/off/charge" switch to the "on" position.
3: Hold the biplane level, and push the left hand stick on the controller up (toward the front).
4: Gently throw the biplane forward; it should now be flying.
For additional instructions & tips on how to fly, please read the instructional material that comes with the product.
Turn the biplane and remote control off when finished using them.
Same switches as before, but slide them in the opposite direction this time.
The battery in the biplane itself is rechargeable and is not designed to be changed; however the batteries in the remote will need to be changed from time to time.
To do this, unscrew & remove the small screw holding the battery door in place, very gently place it on the ground, and kick it into the garden so the hungry, hungry praying mantids will think it's something yummy for their little insect tummies and subsequently strike at it...O WAIT!!! YOU'LL NEED THAT!!! So just set it aside instead.
Swing the battery door up, and remove that too.
Remove the six used AA cells from the compartment, and dispose of or recycle them as you see fit.
Insert six new AA cells into the compartment, orienting each cell so its flat-end (-) negative faces a spring for it in each chamber.
Finally, place the battery door back on & screw that screw back in.
Aren't you glad you didn't kick that screw and battery door into the garden with all those hungry, hungry praying mantids now?
Here is what a praying mantis looks like.
I found this guy on the morning of 09-08-06 clinging to the basket of my scooter.
To charge the battery in the biplane, plug the USB charger cable into a USB port on your pee-cee or Mac computer. A red LED on the USB dongle should now turn on.
With the biplane turned off, plug the other end of this cable into the small receptacle for it on the left side of the biplane's fuselage (body), toward the front. The light in the dongle will now extinguish.
This connector is keyed to fit the receptacle on the biplane only one way; please do not force it or you may irreversibly damage the biplane.
After a maximum of 30 minutes, the red light on the USB charge cable will turn back on; you may now gently disconnect the charge cable from the FlyCloud and unplug the dongle from your computer.
There is no mention of flight time per charge of the biplane's battery; however it will probably be in the range of 7-10 minutes.
According to the instructional materials furnished with the product, you should wait 10 to 15 minutes before recharging the battery after you've run it down in order to allow it to cool.
The Megatech Avion biplane is meant to be used as a toy in a dry area, not as a flashlight meant to be carried around, rained on, thrashed, trashed, and abused, so I won't try to drown it in the toilet tank, bash it against a steel rod or against the concrete floor of a patio, let my housemate's citty kats go to the litterbox on it, run over it with a 450lb Celebrity motorised wheelchair, stomp on it, pee on it, or perform other indecencies/potentially destructive test on it that a regular flashlight might have to have performed on it. So this section of the web page will be significantly more bare than this section of the web page on a page about a flashlight.
The airplane has a cutoff that will stop the propeller if it loses contact with the remote control for more than one or two seconds; thus the model will not "fly, fly, fly away!" (as Seattle Mariners baseball announcer Dave Neihaus might say when somebody hits a home run) if it goes out of range of the remote.
The remote control's maximum range is not stated.
Photograph of the remote control.
Spectrographic analysis of the LED in this airplane.
Spectrographic analysis of the LED in this airplane; spectrometer's response narrowed to a band between 450nm and 460nm to pinpoint emission peak wavelength, which is 452.590nm.
The raw spectrometer data (tab-delimited that can be loaded into Excel) is at flycloud.txt
A beam cross-sectional analysis would normally appear here, but the ProMetric System
that I use for that test was destroyed by lightning in mid-July 2013.
Maiden (and final) flights of my Avion FlyCloud R/C Airplane 08-18-16
Flights took place over the 1000-block of Ellinor Ave. in Shelton WA. USA at 1:55pm PDT on 08-18-16 (or, "2016 18 Aug." or even, "August 18, Twenty stick-Very-Twirly-Stick" if you prefer).
Weather conditions at flight time were clear & sunny, temperature of 92°F (33.4°C), and winds reported as gusting from the S at 6mph (5.214kts, 9.66kph) at the surface.
The flights ended prematurely when the gay little styrofoam bipe crashed up a tree. :-(
This video is 160.98067430005 megabytes (161,027,725 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than eight hundred five minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.
This video is most definitely ***NOT*** dial-up friendly!!!
TEST NOTES:
Test unit was purchased via catalouge at the Heartland America website on 09-11-16 and was received on 08-18-16.
The AvionFlyCloud is no longer on their website; that's why there are no links to the product.
Since the gay little styropfoam & carbon tube airplane became irretrievably lost on its maiden flights, that dreadful, "" will have to be appended next to its listings on this website.
UPDATE: 08-29-16
Its replacement arrived on the early-afternoon of 08-27-16, so that horrible & dreadful, "" can now be happily removed from this website.
UPDATE: 09-27-16
While making a flight on the afternoon of 09-25-16, an extended gust of wind carried the gay little foam bipe away; it appears to be a total loss. Therefore, the always dreadful, "" icon will have to be appended to its listings on this website, denoting the fact that the aircraft became lost in the line of duty.
UPDATE: 11-20-16
While in a nearby neighbour's yard looking for a little wayward drone, I happened to run across my Flycloud, so that horrible & dreadful, "" can now be happily removed from this website.
There is some minor structural damage, but nothing that a dab of foam-safe cyanoacrylate adhesive and a few small pieces of Scotch tape can't fix. All of the electronics performed properly in static testing.
MANUFACTURER: Megatech
PRODUCT TYPE: Remote controlled micro-sized indoor/outdoor airplane
LAMP TYPE: LED
No. OF LAMPS: 4 (1x 3mm blue, 1x red in airplane; 1x red & 1x yellow-green in Tx)
BEAM TYPE: Medium spot
SWITCH TYPE: Slide on/off on bottom of product
CASE MATERIAL: Carbon fiber, styrofoam
BEZEL: N/A
BATTERY: 6xAA cells (remote), 3.7 volt Li-Poly rechargeable (biplane itself)
CURRENT CONSUMPTION: Unknown/unable to measure
WATER- AND MICTURITION-RESISTANT: Very light splatter-resistance at maximum
SUBMERSIBLE: NO WAY HOZAY!!!
SIZE: 8.75" long, 7.50" wingspan
WEIGHT: 7.40g (0.260 oz)
ACCESSORIES: Display stand
WARRANTY: 90 days
PRODUCT RATING:
Megatech AvionFlyCloud Airplane *
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SIZE
" will have to be appended next to its listings on this website. 
