Parrot Swing + Flypad

I bought two of these, one as a Christmas gift for my father-in-law, and one for myself. Naturally, I have been testing it using mine to make sure it is a good gift. I currently have put in a little over an hour in flight time with this Parrot Swing. It is very fun and easy to fly, it is affordable, but there is one issue that can ruin a flight.My first impressions when opening the box was pleasant as the drone is packaged very well. The possibility of receiving a damaged drone from shipping will be very rare. The package comes with both the drone, and the fly pad. The fly pad is built very well, it feels like an Xbox One controller and seems to match the quality of one too. It comes with a mount that you can attach to the controller so that you can mount your phone. With the phone mounted to the controller, you get details about your flight such as such as time and battery life. You simply pair your drone and fly pad to your phone via Bluetooth and the free flight Parrot app. Of course, you always have the option to fly via your phone if you choose not to use the fly pad. The Parrot Swing itself is very light and very delicate feeling. I was a little concerned about its ability to handle the occasional crash. Otherwise, it seems that it is built well. It has a camera and some sensors on the bottom to help it take off, land, and sustain positioning when you choose to let it hover. It also has a power button on the side.Before flying the drone, be sure to get the firmware update. You can easily do this through the free flight app via Bluetooth. It only takes a couple minutes. Then you are ready to fly. The first flight went well, I just flew around in drone mode to get use to the controls. This thing is very impressive for lift off, maintaining its position, and landing. When you first take off, you literally push one button and nothing else. The drone will maintain its initial take off altitude and positioning with zero input from the user. It is very similar to the GPS enabled drones. It will even fight wind automatically to maintain position. It really works well. The battery lasts about 6 minutes give or take 30 seconds, so there is a pretty good amount of flight time for a charge.first time I put it into plane mode, was the first time that I had an issue, and it was frustrating. I went to a big, open parking lot with very few trees in the area. In fact, the closest tree was about 30 feet away. I took the drone to about 15 feet in altitude and threw it into plane mode. As soon as I did that, I had no way to control the drone. It flew straight into the tree at about 15 feet up and got stuck. I was rescued by a neighborhood kid walking his dog. Like a ninja squirrel, he climbed the tree and got my drone. I looked up the issue and found that it is common, and the only fix is to do a hard reset to the drone by holding the power button. After the hard reset, everything worked great. The drone is super easy to fly and can do little stunts with the new firmware update. Later that day I took it out front of my house to show the neighborhood kids. Took it to a safe altitude, and started flying. Went into plane mode, and yet again, right into a tree… same day, same scenario, was once again saved by the tree climbing kids. My lesson was learned, hard reset the drone before every flight. It sucks, but it is effective. I also ran in into issues with the flight pad and my phone switching priority mid-flight. Meaning the fly pad would stop working and my phone would take over, then it would switch back, even though I selected the option to only use the fly pad. It has only happened once.Other than those minor issues, the drone works great and I am super happy with the purchase. I bought some aftermarket batteries with a charger from Keenstone for about $25. They exceed the flight time of the provided Parrot battery by about 20 or 30 seconds. The only small issue is that the batteries fit tight compared to the Parrot issued battery. Parrot Minidrone battery,Keenstone 3PCS 3.7V 650mAh 20C Li-po Battery w/3-Port Charger for Jumping Sumo,Swing,Mambo,Rolling Spider, Air Night Airborne Cargo,Jumping Race,Jumping Night,Hydrofoil DroneUPDATE (12/13/17): I have put another hour of fly time in now and haven't had any of the issues mentioned earlier. I drive to the park by my house to fly because it is a huge open space. I forgot my fly pad one session and had no choice but to use my phone. It worked great, I was able to enjoy the flights just fine. Though, I still like the fly pad more. Now that I haven't had issues, I am bumping this review to 5 stars. This thing is a blast to fly!

I have a lot of RC airplanes and Quadcopters, but this is by far the coolest little quad that I have ever tried. It is very easy to control. Very stable. In Quad mode flies very steady and in airplane mode is steady and can fly slow or fast. I even was able to hover it around my living room in quad mode with no problem.Outside it can even stand a little bit of wind.This is a very excellent addition to my RC fleet! I have ordered additional batteries so I can fly longer without having to wait for recharge.Nice job! I highly recommend.

The lithium battery is swollen and cannot be charged, making the product unusable.

Got this for my 11 year old son and he love it. It does seem to fall apart a bit with tough landings, but so far we have been able to put it together. Bought the additional batteries based on others comments. Definitely was a wise choice as the batteries die quickly. Fun toy!

I was immediately intrigued when I saw the design of this drone. I had previously owned a more typically designed "entry level" drone so I have a little experience with flying but I thought this would be a unique experience. I am extremely pleased with my decision to give the Parrot Swing a shot.The drone comes nicely packaged with the drone, battery, charger, and 4 extra props. In a separate box you get the Flypad. Each carton comes with a comprehensive instruction booklet. The drone is very light weight but obviously well made and the foam wings seem to be capable of lasting a long time (replacement foam and plastic pieces are available from Parrot and are pretty reasonably priced if needed) . The Flypad is excellent. It feels very nice in your hands when flying around. It is compact which is awesome since many drones from other companies ship with bulky, chinsey plastic radios. This remote feels natural and has a great finish to maximize comfort. The remotes functions can even be customized through the phone app for a very personalized feel (just know you must be connected to the phone for the custom controls to be in effect as they will revert back if not using a phone in conjunction). The available app also displays battery life, drone status and can be used to fly the drone as well.I would recommend anyone, experienced drone pilot or newbie, too read the instructions thoroughly and get an idea of the controls because the unique design of this drone makes flying it different in many ways. The drone is very stable and holds altitude extremely well.It is very fast when in plane mode and smoothly glides around. You may use the first few charges to just get a feel for the controls but it should not take long to become comfortable. The battery lasts about as long as expected and charges very fast (less than 30 minutes on most USB sockets). The only thing I wish was different is the battery is a little difficult to remove if you have extra batteries but not impossible. The camera image quality is nice for the size as well and adds a fun element to the experience.I would recommend this to anyone looking to get into drones or as an additional drone for someone looking to get something a little different than what they currently have.

The company should provide you with a functional system. I am unable to use what I bought and paid for.

Want to love this as it's really cool conceptBut...Flimsy, the pegs that hold wings in place have fallen out and to push them in it sometimes feel like you're forcing or going to break a partUnless there is absolute zero wind, it's tough to fly outside. Slightest gust takes this away whether in plane or quad mode

Flying is totally stable and definitely easy for beginners. Seems very high quality especially for the price. I wish Parrot had something in the $200 price range with a good camera, gps, etc. I really like their quality but to get what others are offering for $200 to $250 you would have to pay $500 or more for the Parrot version. Because of their quality I would pay a little more but not that much.