Silverlit Z-Bruce reviewed

Z-Bruce is advertised by Silverlit with “high precision control trough gyroscopic technology”. Let’s find out if this holds.

The single rotor helicopter is steered by 4 channels and suited for indoor use only. Most helicopters in similar price regions have two rotors (coaxial), single rotor helicopters are usually more difficult to fly. With these choppers you will encounter a significant drift while starting, hovering and landing. You will hope that the gyros will ease these effects.

Delivery & Price

The RC helicopter is available for about 50 € on Amazon. It is available in white, orange and blue. The required 4xAA (AA) batteries are not included.

The package contains:

• Helicopter
• Remote control
• Manual
• USB charger
• Replacement tail blade

Specifications 

• 4 channel single rotor helicopter
• Plastic body
• IR remote control
• Gyroscope
• Flight time about 6 minutes
• Charging time: 50-60 minutes via USB or remote control
• Internal 3.7 V 70 mAH Lipo
• Remote controlled flashing led lights
• Weight 21 g

Product quality

The helicopters body is full plastic. Likewise the remote control feels cheaper in comparison with similar helicopters. After a couple of flights you will find the Z-Bruce to be more druable than I thought in the first place. Unfortunately there are only few replacement parts available.

Operating and Flight Characteristics

You control the Z-Bruce with 4 channels. Throttle and yaw are on the left stick, with the right one you roll and go forward / backward. My first flights didn’t go so well. It drifted off while launching and hit the wall hard. The only way to start from ground is to accelerate fast while rolling to the right. I eventually decided to start by hand.

You won’t find it easy to hover steadily even with a lot of practice. The helicopter holds its position for a short moment but starts rapidly oscillating and drifting away. It also doesn’t like to fly straight on or do turns. You will lose control far too often, especially because your commands are badly translated by the helicopter. If you try to smoothly yaw, the helicopter flies quite often a semi-circle. Better don’t roll too much because it tends to start wobbling. You find it hard to believe that there is a gyro at all. For a while I thought it to be faulty but if you take a look into the reviews at amazon, you will soon find there are a lot of guys with the same problems as I described.

Target audience

There is hardly an audience for such a helicopter.

Conclusion

The Silverlit Z-Bruce is an half-baked, bad controllable helicopter with poor flight characteristics.