Much earlier in my model aviation journey I was captivated by an image that appeared at the beginning of the monthly editorial for Model Airplane News. The graphic that accompanied the column showed the editor leaning back in his chair flying a very small rubber powered R/C indoor model over his desk. That was back in the ‘60s when such an image was a real pipe dream.

Time marches on, as they say, and today indoor R/C is pretty common. That old "MAN at Work" column image still haunts me though. Indoor R/C has come so far in a short period of time, but the idea of flying in the small space over your desk, or in your living room is still a little out of reach. The new micro helicopters can do this, but wouldn’t it be nice if something were available that did not require quite as large of an up-front investment.

On those too windy, too hot, too cold, too something days that seem to keep us grounded when we have the urge to be flying a model under our control, it sure would be great to have something to fly right at home in our living space.

I must not be the only one with such thoughts. The folks at Toytronix have delivered a nice little package that goes a long way in scratching my living room R/C flying itch. Well, technically it is not a Radio Control flying machine, but rather a Remote Control device since it is controlled by an infrared transmitter.

The Balloon Craft 2000 is a clever little package that turns an ordinary helium balloon into a living room flying machine. On the surface you might think this is just a simple toy that would not hold much interest for the dedicated electric powered model airplane buff. I had my doubts when I first received the package and saw the toy like graphics on the package.

I soon learned that this product represented a fairly sophisticated piece of engineering. Not only that, I have logged a number of hours driving that seemingly simple toy balloon all around my living room with the Balloon Craft 2000 attached. The manual says it is for children from 12 to 60. This 57 year old modeler sure felt 12 again as I lost myself in flying the Balloon Craft 2000 around the house dreaming up games and challenges for the pilot. With that in mind, lets take a closer look at this nice piece of engineering in toy clothing.

What you get

When you open the box, you are presented with the basic Balloon Craft 2000 flight module and it’s associated accessories. There is no assembly required for the flight module. All you need to do is set up the balloon, add batteries to the IR transmitter and flight module, and familiarize yourself with the operating instructions. The manual is very clearly written and uses photos quite effectively to make sure the user will be able to get things going without any problems.

5 Good Quality Balloons	Optional Sealing Solution

Along with the flight module, you get five very good quality balloons, inflation gear, a set of clip-on ballast weights, and a rig for picking up some plastic people with the Balloon Craft 2000.

In addition to the basic package, the Toytronix people offer an optional accessory. That is a solution that can be poured inside the balloons to help keep them from losing their helium. Untreated balloons will lose the helium over a fairly short period of time. The optional sealing solution will extend the useful period of a filled balloon by a factor of about five times. So instead of about one day on a single helium fill, you get around five days of flying time before the helium has to be replenished.

I was able to verify the benefit of using the sealing solution. Treated balloons lasted much longer than one that was not treated. The only downside to the extended life solution is that it adds about a half ounce to the overall flying weight. The manual notes that if you live in an area 2000 feet or more above sea level, the solution should not be used. The added weight is too much for the filled balloon to lift the Balloon Craft 2000 in the less dense air of higher elevations.

Features

The IR Transmitter offers some surprises

Before we talk about flying the Balloon Craft 2000, I would like to review some of the interesting features of the assembly. First, lets look at that simple looking IR transmitter. The control functions are laid out very nicely. You have a joy stick that strongly resembles a video game control. In this case the forward, reverse, left, and right movements of the stick produce the same motions in the flying Balloon Craft 2000.

Altitude is controlled with a lift fan that operates just like a throttle control. Wow, altitude is controlled with throttle ... where have we experienced this before? Just when you think you have all the functions figured out, you discover there is one more function supplied by that simple looking IR transmitter. By pressing down on the joy stick you get TURBO power. Pressing down on the joystick while applying one of the control inputs will just about double the rpm of the flight module motors. This logically gives more control authority. A handy feature when you realize that you need "warp 9 Mr. Scott" to get out of trouble.

Another nice touch provided by the Balloon Craft 2000 designers is a signal LED on the bottom of the flight module. This LED blinks when you have an IR control link established. When you hit the turbo control, the LED goes to full on. Kind of helps give a feel of "warp 9". One final note about the IR transmitter. It can be set to one of four channels. This allows operation of four Balloon Craft 2000's at the same time. Can you say  s  l  o  w  combat?

Looking like the Starship Enterprise, the flight module is very functional

The flight module itself is a very interesting assembly. My first impression when removing it from the box was that it resembled the Starship Enterprise. The configuration of the lift fan and propulsion fans has that Federation Starship look. Remember, this is a just for fun type flying machine, so a little imagination is all part of the package.

The Balloon Craft 2000 is balanced to be just slightly negative in buoyancy. That means it will sink slowly when dropped. The flight module lift fan is used to control altitude. Increasing the rpm of the lift fan will cause the unit to rise, while decreasing the fan speed will allow the Balloon Craft 2000 to sink due to the negative buoyancy. Forward, reverse, and turns are controlled by the propulsion motors. On each of the propulsion motors are props that have been designed to give equal thrust in either direction of rotation.

A single AAA Alkaline cell provides the go power.

Power for the flight module comes from a single AAA alkaline battery. This single cell provides a surprising level of flight duration. The manual suggests that 1 to 2 hours of flight time is possible. I was definitely able to verify this specification. I’m on my second battery and going strong.

The flight module weighs 21.5 grams (.76oz) without the battery installed. Considering it has three motors, you get a good idea that the motors are pretty light. Purchasing replacement motors from Toytronix might prove to the source of some fun experimenting with your own light weight indoor R/C design. The alkaline AAA cell adds another 11 grams to the total flying weight of the system. The manual notes that you could substitute a rechargeable cell for the alkaline battery, but also notes that you would see a noticeable loss in performance due to the lower cell voltage.

When you add the weight of the balloon to the all up flying weight you begin to realize just how heavy air really is. Allowing for the balloon and the balloon fitting, you end up with a total flying weight of 42.5 grams (1.5 ounces). If you use the optional sealer in the balloon, the weight goes up by another half ounce. The balloon used for the Balloon Craft 2000 is about 17 inches in diameter. That doesn’t seem to me to be a lot of volume to displace up to two ounces of air. And that does not include any ballast weights. I guess in addition to being a ton of fun, the Balloon Craft 2000 is also educational.

Set Up

The biggest challenge in getting the Balloon Craft 2000 ready to fly is obtaining a helium source. Fortunately, the supplied manual lists a number of possibilities. For people who live in an area with larger consumer stores such as Wal Mart, Target, K-Mart or Costco, there are party kits available. These include portable helium tanks that can fill a party load of balloons. Or in our case, the Balloon Craft 2000 balloons a number of times. Prices for such a package should be in the $25 range. I had a party supply store near me, so I ended up renting a small helium tank to get things going for the review. I’m sure it would also be possible to take a prepared Balloon Craft 2000 to any place that sells helium balloons and have them fill it for a very reasonable fee.

The fill/attach fitting is well thought out and light weight.  It mounts on the top LED.

You begin the system set up by inserting a neat plastic fitting into the mouth of the balloon. This is well illustrated and quite easy to do. The fitting provides for a simple means for filling the balloon, and also serves as the attachment fixture for mating the balloon and the flight module. Just examining the cleaver design of the fitting you begin to realize that considerable effort went into the development of the Balloon Craft 2000.

Preparation of the flight module simply involves inserting one AAA battery in the holder. That is it. After the battery is in place, you attach the balloon to the flight module. This is where you see some of the refinements of the design of the fill fitting. It slips over a light emitting diode (LED) that is part of the flight module. No extra parts are required that would add unnecessary weight.

The next step is to fill the balloon with helium. The supplied accessories for this function make the process pretty easy. Basically, you fill the balloon until it just lifts the flight module. At this point a cap is placed over the fill opening in the fitting and you are nearly ready to go.

Once the balloon is filled you need to add some ballast weights to the flight module to cause it to just barely sink when you release the Balloon Craft 2000 from your hand. As helium escapes from the balloon over time, individual ballast weights are removed to maintain the very slight negative buoyancy.

Ballast weights are added until the assembly just barely sinks when dropped with the inflated balloon attached.

The final set up step is to place a 9 volt battery in the infrared transmitter. That is all there is to the process. Getting the Balloon Craft 2000 ready to fly after taking it out of the box takes less than 30 minutes. And that includes reading the manual.

Flying

OK, you put up with my raving about the engineering behind the Balloon Craft 2000 and it’s features. Now we get down to the whole purpose behind this neat package. How does it fly?

After you get the ballast set correctly, you are ready for flight. You begin by turning on the flight module. A red LED begins to flash. This same LED also serves as the anchor point for the balloon. Next you point the IR transmitter toward the flight module and turn it on. The transmitter on/off switch is part of the lift fan control.

By pushing the joy stick forward you send out a signal to the flight module and establish the IR control link. When this happens the red LED stops flashing and a green LED on the bottom of the flight module starts flashing. That signals you have control. You can now initiate a lift off by advancing the speed of the lift fan.

The very first thing I had to get used to was everything happens in slow motion. This is nice when you are flying in your living room, or around your office desk (for the more daring among us). As you move the joy stick to move forward, left, right, or reverse the Balloon Craft 2000 moves in the direction you have directed. Once moving in that direction, it tends to continue. I found steering the Balloon Craft 2000 a lot like steering a boat. You have to really anticipate your turns and apply a little opposite steering input to control the motion.

After a short while I acclimated to this and began to try more precise maneuvers. One that I thought would be easy, landing in the middle of the coffee table, turned out to be far more challenging than I expected. After a number of attempts, I was able to be fairly consistent at landing in a designated area.

Playing air rescue is possible with the supplied accessories, but that is just the beginning of ways to enjoy this neat indoor flying machine.

After "mastering" the landing process, it didn’t take long for that childhood imagination to come alive. You start dreaming up all sorts of flying balloon games. Fortunately, the folks at Toytronix anticipated this evolution in the Balloon Craft 2000 pilots skills. They included in the package a neat pick up attachment, a hoop, and two plastic figures. The idea is to fly low over the plastic figure that is attached to the hoop, pick them up, and then fly off.

This seemed a natural evolution for a person such as myself that was now so skilled at spot landings. Yea, right. I’m still working on that little trick. I admit that the photo with the plastic figure hanging on the Balloon Craft 2000 in the air was staged. I will get there eventually, but I sure did not want to hold up this review waiting for that to happen. I think you can get the picture by now. What may appear to be a simple toy soon becomes a fairly captivating living room flying machine. The possibilities for flying tasks in your living space are endless. 

Recommendation

While not overly expensive at $90, the Balloon Craft 2000 represents the price of a good speed control, a Speed 400 kit, or some other electric flight accessory. If spending some of your electric flight budget on something that will not directly help your latest "serious" electric flight project is not a barrier, then I suggest you  look into acquiring a Balloon Craft 2000.

Those of us who fly electric powered airplanes know that there are a lot of ways to get some nice flying satisfaction, but not many that will allow you do that in the comfort of your living room for $90. I would also like to recommend that you visit the Toytronix web site at http://www.toytx.com.

As I conclude this review, I noticed that it is far too windy outside to head for the flying field. What to do. Oh, I think I will fire up the Balloon Craft 2000 and work on my human pick-up technique, or maybe I will go save the sofa from the invading cats (no front claws), or ...........

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me BradleyP@ix.netcom.com.

E-Zone Magazine Aug 2000 ( www.ezonemag.com )