“I think that overall, the Gazaurs are without a doubt, the KING of mini helis,” Aeryk Hurley, a teenager who test-pilots the company’s helicopters in the US, wrote in an e-mail. “I have yet to fly anything that has handled better.”
While working on his first design, “My wife and I sold fruit on the side of the road in Danshui,” Chen said. He used Computer Aided Drafting software to design his helicopters and consulted a helicopter pilot and a professor of aerospace engineering at Danjiang University (淡江大學). He named the company Gazaur (嘉炤) after the Taiwanese word for flea, which in local culture is seen as an acrobatic animal, not an annoying pest. As is common with small Taiwanese industries, five factories and machine shops that make the parts for Chen’s helicopters became co-investors in his company. The whole process between quitting his job and opening his company took less than a year. “I never doubted myself,” Chen said.
Both the Gazaur Poseidon 480 and Mars 480 are similar in size to the popular T-Rex 450 and mini Titan electric RC helicopters. They use 325mm- to 340mm-long main rotor blades, a 4,000 kilovolt brushless motor and a lithium polymer battery. Originally priced at US$400, a basic kit now costs US$200. Combo kits, which come with a motor and ESC controller, are also available. Batteries cost around US$50. Hobbyists usually own three to five, because one battery is good for only five minutes of flight (though some experienced pilots can get seven or eight minutes of flying time) and can take as long as two hours to recharge.
Before flying an RC helicopter, first-time pilots should buy a flight simulator program, such as Real Flight G3 or Reflex FDR, and use it to learn how to make a computer-simulated helicopter hover without crashing. Otherwise, Gazaur spokesman Liu Hsinli (劉新立) said, “You’ll have to buy a lot of spare parts. And you might hurt someone.”
There are only a few places in the Taipei area where flying an RC helicopter is safe — and legal. One of the most popular is a park on Muzha Road (木柵路) next to the garbage incinerator near the Taipei City Zoo.
A skilled pilot can make one of Gazaur’s helicopters fly upside down and dart back and forth. But this takes months or even years of practice. During a recent demonstration, Chen, who is still in the hovering stage, had to bring along a test pilot.
To be sure, not everyone is keen on Gazaur’s helicopters. On another RC helicopter forum, www.helifreak.com, comments were mostly negative. “That think [sic] is but ugly [sic],” wrote one poster. Another said they looked like Air Jordan shoes “crossed with a transformer toy.” A third: “Thats [sic] like a turd flying around.” But one poster, who had actually flown one, said it “flies much better than it looks.”
Liu admitted the company’s radical designs are not poplar with older RC helicopter enthusiasts, many of whom have flown real helicopters. “Our market is mainly young people,” he said. “They love the way our helicopters look.”
To watch videos of Gazaur’s helicopters in flight, go to www.gazaur.com/download_e.php. To find a hobby shop in Taiwan that sells Chen’s helicopters, call Gazaur at (02) 8295-8721.
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