The Sky Rover Aero Spin was a pretty impressive little toy helicopter.

It has a hover mode that stabilizes flight a certain distance off of the ground and a “controller” mode which allows you to try controlling the spin rate of the propellers to fly the helicopter.  A good video demonstration is on the rcgroups forums.

This helicopter has been by far the easiest budget (<$50) helicopter to fly, at $10 at Wal-Mart ($7.51 online now).

Unfortunately, a collision within the first minute of flight broke the ring holding the blades together onto the spin shaft. [See Flutterbye Deluxe Fairy for a “helicopter” from this Christmas that’s still going.]

We played around with Gorilla Glue to try and repair the ring (should have used crazy glue. After the glue was allowed to set, the helicopter was mostly back in flying shape, with the exception of a bit of constant roll due to the imbalance.

We were able to fly the helicopter for another few minutes prior to a collision that snapped the same fragile ring yet again, both in the glued spot and in the spot opposite to it.

Ease of flight is definitely an A+. There’s virtually no thought to it.

Durability is a bit worse that most Air Hogs brands that we’ve had.

To be determined: If there will be any support from the company who manufactured the helicopter.