The Legend 9050 Electric Gyro RC Helicopter

The Legend 9050 is an indoor/outdoor coaxial RC helicopter with the addition of gyro technology. This helicopter comes in at almost two and a half feet long and 9.5 inches high and is quite a bit larger than the next largest 3 channel gyro helicopter, the SkyAce 9099. This is where we get in to serious helicopter territory, and if you are planning on flying the Legend indoors you should make sure it’s in a large enough area. The Hobbytron warehouse is perfect, but your living room may not be. Unless of course you are fabulously wealthy and have a gigantic house with 30 foot ceilings, in which case congratulations to you. The Legend is extremely stable indoors, and goes pretty much unfazed by air conditioning vents, open windows and the like. Outside it fairs very well, although you should still only fly in stable weather conditions. Apparently the Legend 9050 can be flown to well over 300 feet, and the controller has a 200 foot range, so if you are flying from the balcony of your 10^th story apartment it works out very nicely. Either way, I didn’t have a comically large ruler with me  to test the height but this helicopter gets up there.  I could easily land on the roof of the Hobbytron warehouse and fly off again.

The Legend 9050 features essentially the same 3 channel remote as the Sky Ace. It still has the speed file switch and a light display that changes color as you go faster. The Legend is quite a bit harder to pilot than the Sky Ace and beginners will have a challenge to look forwards to. With the gyro technology it isn’t frustrating or anything, and is still actually quite easy, but it will take little bit of getting used to if you have never flown an RC helicopter before. With the PhantomS107 and Sky Ace 9099 almost anyone can pick them up and be flying confidently pretty much immediately. The Legend is larger than these helicopters, and beginners will likely have to put in some time before they are confident enough to start performing risky maneuvers. Unlike the Phantom and Sky Ace, the Legend does actually suffer from ground effect which means it does not stay in control when barely hovering off the ground. Don’t get me wrong, this is still a lightweight coaxial helicopter with 3 channel controls and a gyro; even beginners will master it pretty easily. It just might take a few hours instead of a few minutes.

The Legend is very light for its size but still has sturdy metal construction. You can’t throw it around without a care like you can with the Phantom, but it seems very durable and I’m thinking in the event of catastrophic failure on the pilot’s part it would still be ok. You might manage to take out the rear rotor or stabilizing bar, maybe some of the plastic body work, but the metal frame seems pretty indestructible and the main rotor blades are extremely flexible, as they are in all of Hobbytron’s 3channel gyro models. Of course all the parts are still easily replaceable and readily available so if you do break something it isn’t the end of the world (I promise).

In its class and for the price, I don’t really think you can beat the Legend 9050. The durability is a key aspect here. This helicopter will take a serious beating in a way that most helicopters won’t. You can also fly it wherever you want, and at high altitude which is always more fun for some reason. It is still great for beginners but gives them a little more room to breathe and grow. If I was going to buy a 3ch gyro helicopter, I would probably buy the Legend 9050.