Anyone here own a E-Flite Blade CP helicopter?

[gregrocks90046]

i'm thinking about buying one of these, and want some opinions from owners. thanks!

[microgoat]

i don't own one, but i sell a ton of them. can't beat it for the money, or even twice the money. be warned: HELIS ARE NOT EASY TO FLY! everyone thinks they are "cuz they just hover." what they don't see is you working the sticks like a madman trying to keep it "just hovering". then they buy one and try to return it "cuz it don't fly", then you fly it for them and they go away all hurt and weepy because they didn't get a refund.

it's a heli. you're going to crash. accept it.

you'll need a few sets of extra flat-bottom blades and a couple of main drive gears. consider them consumable items when you're learning to fly.

one very weird little item: had a customer bring one back after a bad crash, and somehow the heli was operating in Mode 1 (european style, with the throttle on the right) even though all CPs worldwide are Mode 2. still trying to figure that one out.

bottom line: great heli. buy it.

[gregrocks90046]

thanks microgoat!

i will plan on buying the extras you mentioned plus the 'training skids'. and you are right, how could you possibly beat it for the price???

another selling point for me is that my lhs has all the spare parts in stock.

[cstmp8r]

I know hackster has one. I have a similar one and cant fly worth the shhh. It currently is sitting in a box with a broken main rotor shaft. I was at my lhs the other day and the owner was flying one with dual blades. He said it was really easy to fly but the only thing I don't really care for is it doesn't look very scale with the dual blades however, it may be a good one to train on? just my opinion. I can't remember who makes it.

[JohnRobHolmes]

i owned one a flew it quite a bit. Every word out of microgoats mouth is spot on.

it is hard

you will crash

the blade is awesome for the $$

Just make sure that you like focusing hard, because there is no relaxing when flying a heli. Your all in, or you better clear out a path.

One problem that might have been addressed by the factory fully by now. The swashplate can be sticky, so at times the heli with want to jump in altitude quickly. easily fixable with some graphite, or some careful sanding with 1000 grit and above paper.

[BigJay]

Well, I'll go against everyone here and say I don't think the Blade is the way to go for a beginner. It's cheap which is good, but fragile. For your first heli I would go with an Hirobo XRB (not a clone). It's a little more but it's REALLY stable. I got that as my first one and flew it for a couple months before I totalled it trying to fly high outside. Now I have a Corona which is bigger 30" bladespan, I love the Corona, but it's a much bigger investment.

XRB teaches you the sticks without too much trouble.. After you've got that down, you'll have a much better chance of being able to learn a different heli. Or consider a simulator, Realflight or reflex xtr.

-Jay

[microgoat]

true, the Hirobo is more stable, but the foam blades are so fragile that anytime you get a little sideways you're buying a new set. the Blade's blades can be repaired, at least until the lead weight goes shooting out of them. plus the Blade is more heli for less money. once you've mastered the Hirobo you pretty much have to buy something else (like a Blade), whereas if youstart with the Blade you can grow into its abilities, and upgrade to the aerobatic package later.

nothing wrong with the XRB, but it only gets you so far. the Blade teaches you more, but it's harder to learn. if you can fly the Blade you can fly anything.

[badger]

I had a Sabre for a couple weeks. Tried to fly it for about 10 minutes and sent it to Jason.

He got further then I did flying it before he crashed and broke it, but he is also a master with sticks.

[BigJay]

You're totally correct that the Hirobo can't really take you into forward flight and stuff like that. Most people I see getting into Helis(myself included) don't spend nearly the time required to learn different aspects of flight. You need to learn tail in hover, which is fairly easy, once you have that down you COULD move to a Blade, but then you need to start working on side in hover and nose in hover. I say stick with the XRB. It will take you at least 6 months to be able to hover completely controlled in all orientations. THEN you will need to buy something new, like a Blade, or bigger, or whatever. But when you go to the next step you'll be ahead of the game.

And about the blades, you are correct. But that's the point of the foam blades. It's brilliant really. If you hit furniture, walls, pets, yourself, all that happens is the blades explode. The head is fine, main shaft, main gear, motors, and your wall/pet/head is fine too.

I seriously doubt any XRBs get returned because they "can't fly." My maiden flight on my XRB(I'd never flown ANYTHING before) lasted 20 seconds. By the next day I could hover for 5 minutes. There isn't any other helicopter that can do that.

Different strokes for different folks though.

-Jay

[gregrocks90046]

a big thing for me is parts support. my lhs doesn't sell the hirobo or hirobo parts, so i don't want to wait for parts to be shipped to me when i can just go and pick them up. my lhs has every single part for the blade in stock. and like the blade combo, the parts are very inexpensive too.

[doubledub]

I have a blade and have to agree with microgoat I've had a few others and I think the blade is by far the strongest I've hit walls and everything else with it and so far only replced main rotor blades and landing gear

[microgoat]

Originally Posted by BigJay

I seriously doubt any XRBs get returned because they "can't fly."
-Jay

I WISH!