"I ran across the Ornithopter Zone Store because I was searching for reviews of the Cybird - a retail packaged Ornithopter. The Ornithopter Zone wrote a really useful review of the Cybird that covered everything from assembly to flight to maintenance. I was happy to find that they actually had an online store and it was dedicated to the sale of Ornithopters.
Their site is well designed: simple and easy to navigate. They have some videos of the various Ornithopters in flight and have pretty good descriptions of the products as well. This married to their other site, and you can get a really good understanding of the products. I decided to purchase the Cybird from them despite a slightly higher price as they had all the parts for the product available and had knowledge and experience with the product.
When I got to the check out page I was surprised to notice sales tax on the invoice. I shot over to the contact page and low and behold, they were located right in Rochester, NY, the city of my current residence. So I sent them an email at 3 am (yes I tend to shop late) and was happy to see that they responded to it first thing that morning (9am). They were happy to arrange a time to pick up the bird and even gave me directions to their location. They also informed me of their current stock of the Cybird (at the time it was in-transit).
It turns out they are a home-operated business but they were still more than willing to help me get rid of the shipping fee by allowing me to stop over. My own work schedule and laziness made it inconvenient for me to stop by so I opted for the reasonable shipping fee and was happy when I received the order in only a few days.
I assembled the Cybird (it comes mostly assembled) which took about 45 minutes… maybe an hour. (I was being careful!) I then had to wait several weekends until I got pretty decent weather. Important note: Just because it isn’t windy in the morning that isn’t any indicator that it won’t be windy in the afternoon. Needless to say the flights were cut short by several interactions with hard obstacles. The first flight lasted for about 15 seconds as the bird took off beautifully into the wind. It rose too fast as I’m an idiot and held down the button. It then banked left as it was hit by a gust of wind, getting a little bit more control I kept it aloft until I realized it was heading directly for the highway (granted more than 1500 feet away but I wasn’t taking any chances) so I decreased the wing speed and gracefully ran it straight in to a bunch of shrubs.
The little bugger is strong! It wasn’t even scratched by the brush and shrubs (more than I can say for me, who had to retrieve it). So since it was near 4pm and the wind was coming directly from the sun’s direction, I decided to not launch it facing the sun so I could see the bird better. Bad idea. The Cybird tried its best to get aloft, managing this feat for about 4 or 5 seconds before it got hit by a blast of wind (probably 10 – 20 miles per hour) and dove straight for the ground. Hard. Amazingly the main wings of the bird were just fine! However I had successfully torn the tail off the bird – breaking it at the thin part of the tail. The good news is the tails only cost $4! I think I’ll be buying a few just in case (I doubt this will be the bird’s first fall).
At any rate – the product really works (just avoid wind and stupidity). The store is run by very responsive people who know what they are doing and are really there to help the customer. They have all sorts of spare parts and have even better Ornithopters than the Cybird. Once I get good with the Cybird I plan on purchasing the Kinkade Slow Hawk Ornithopter – how cool is a remote control bird that can glide?! Of course they have parts and remote controls and radio crystals and all the other goodies you need to properly operate an Ornithopter. I highly recommend this store as they are not here to rip you off. They are honestly interested in the products and are more than willing to help you with your purchase."