What a sweet little plane to learn to RC fly on.
Picked one up last night. Me and the boy are having a ball learning to fly it. He's much better than I am, to his delight.
Feather light and slow, so it doesn't damage itself when crashing. Nice and stable, so it tries its best to recover from whatever folly the operater imparts with the joy sticks.
My son has no problem with orienting to the plane, no matter what direction it's flying. Me on the other hand...not so good. I am a true master of turning the wrong way, and crashing.
my nephew got one of those el cheapo rc helicopters for his bday - its so much fun I think I peed a little. I think that a reasonably priced starter model from the RC shop is going to be on my Xmas wishlist for SWMBO.
Has anyone tried the RC planes from HF?
In reply to 4cylndrfury:
My kids got one each for xmas. They are small - and were less than $20. They ignored them after a week or so but I still fly them around the house daily.
I have been looking for a reason to get one of the $400 4 rotor ones that you run from your smart phone. I haven't found that reason yet... (or $400 that isn't needed for something that is actually useful like race entry fees) but when I do the videos from 500' above my house should be cool.
Check it out...http://www.macworld.com/article/1153601/ardronehandson.html#lsrc.mod_rel
the AR drone is neat, but its not compatible with the traditional control systems. you could build/buy a quad, hex, or octo copter yourself if you wanted, for about the same cost, would probably fly longer and would have further upgrade ability beyond what came in the box.
the champ is a great plane to learn on, and "dumb thumbs" gets everyone at one time or another. the trick i was told, when you're learning is to turn your back to the plane when its coming toward you, and look back over your shoulder. this helps get your mind around the fact that the plane is going to its right, not yours.
In reply to Giant Purple Snorklewacker:
4 rotors would be bitchin, and I have seen youtube vids of one that can be programmed to follow instructions from a wii controller...roll the control right at 13°, the copter rolls 13°, trigger for throttle/altitude etc...pretty slick.
I really just want a decent power, small-ish size traditional RC helicopter to fly around indoors...we have about 30' ceilings in the unused warehouse at work...rc aircraft + large enclosed space + hoon at the controls = badassery for at least 6 minutes (until the thing flies into something solid 
)
the blade mCx2 (dual counter-rotating rotors, most stable) or mSRx (fixed pitch, single roter + tail rotor) would be what you're looking for, both come in a "Ready to Fly" package that will come with a battery or two, charger, and controller. they're pretty durable so long as they don't hit anything really solid at full-forward speed.
