Blade Helis

[Benjbrit123]

Was just researching the new 130X and saw how much hate there is for blade helis?
I just wondered where this comes from ? i have not had much experience with them other than an mcpx and tht has been a great little machine (brushless) tought me moves i was too scared to do with a bigger bird !
And too me the Blade 130x looks like an insane little heli perfect for the back garden (especially with the anti crash long grass in there... )

What is your opinion on the blade line of helis ? is there something i am missing?

[Bell47G]

I love the Blade Helis, I have a little collection, Their dosile just like me easy & simple to work on when you have a little crash

[cjcj1949]

Some of the Blade stuff is very good and some of it isn't. The gyro on the Blade 400 was very poor but the one on the 450 is good. I prefer a Carbon Fibre frame rather than a plastic frame. There is a difference of opinion on the mcpx for instance. For the price it is a small heli that survives well and can be used as a good trainer for basic 3D, but it is not as good as helis costing a lot more. Much the same is true of clones. Some people think they are good value and others would rather pay more for Align quality. If you're looking for agreement on anything you've chosen the wrong forum.

[Sburv]

I've got a Blade 450 3d and love it.

I'm not saying the quality of the components are the same as my Trex 450 but for me as a beginner they fly just the same. Perhaps as I progress the differences will become more apparent.

The one thing I like with all Blade Heli's is there no nonsense approach. You buy a Heli, bind it, then get out there flying, for me as a that really appealed. There is a hell of a lot to learn when your just starting out - building, set up, researching, and fine tuning all takes a lot of time and effort. Although it is very rewarding when you finally get your new bird in the air that you have built with you own fair hand.

I bought my Blade 450 3d really because I was impatient, half way through my Trex build and just wanted to get out flying. Straight out the box the Blade flying perfectly.

Personally I think that's where Blade have there place in the market as they make flying good quality Heli's accessible to all.

[Delarado]

One of the guys at the zone competition earlier took a new 500x out of the box, set it up on the TX without reading the manual, flew it, landed, adjusted the gyro and then flew a competition piece with it (and a bloody good one at that)

That is the place that blade have in the market!

[chris jones2.4]

took heliharrys 450x up earlier, and slammed it round the field at zone village, holy shit its quick!

[cjcj1949]

Things change very quickly. In a few years we have gone from poor lipos to good lipos and dodgy gyros to good gyros. You have to look at each model or component and see how good it is. You also need to look at the spares. Some are very expensive for what you get. The price of an msrx bnf is about the same as an msr main board. The msr main board contains the track for the servos making a replacement of the whole board necessary if the track is damaged. My msr has that problem. I'm sure it's the cheapest way, but perhaps a bit too far. Does the mcpx have the same design servo? Perhaps a simple track cut on the board would allow a servo with track included to be fitted?

[Gixxer]

Some of the Blade stuff is very good and some of it isn't. The gyro on the Blade 400 was very poor but the one on the 450 is good. I prefer a Carbon Fibre frame rather than a plastic frame. There is a difference of opinion on the mcpx for instance. For the price it is a small heli that survives well and can be used as a good trainer for basic 3D, but it is not as good as helis costing a lot more. Much the same is true of clones. Some people think they are good value and others would rather pay more for Align quality. If you're looking for agreement on anything you've chosen the wrong forum.

LOL... is that an oxymoron... like 'Microsoft works' or 'Good shit'...???

'Align' and 'quality' shouldn't be used in the same sentence!

I've got a clone Align 700 here (flasher 700) that when bought was at least as good as the crap it's copied from and cost me less than 1/5th the price! I've replaced every bearing in it with real bearings and every screw with real screws, so it's now twice the heli that the Align 700 ever was, and it's still standing me less than 1/3rd the cost of an Align 700...

[nikmods]

the idea of bindnfly is awesome

[Biffa]

Was just researching the new 130X and saw how much hate there is for blade helis?

There are always haters and plenty of them have never even been near or owned a Blade helicopter. Forums are full of them. The same thing occurs when you talk of clones, cheap gyros etc etc.

Heli snobbery

[cjcj1949]

There is some of that. Lots of people have had experience of poor quality. I started with the Twister Storm. It shares most components with the Blade 400. The gyro was quoted as being contest winning. It was absolutly hopeless. The servos had poor nylon gears that had to be replaced every time the blades touched the ground, the main blades cost £30 a time. The servos kept failing as well and one took me 3 months to sort out a problem that kept causing boom strikes. The servo seemed ok, but when the revs hit a certain value at hover the servo would move to max position. A good heli needs good components. Some things like main blades for hovering can be cheap. Some cheap servos are good and there are now good cheap gyros. In general though the more you pay the better the quality. That doesn't mean the more expensive bits are always better than the cheaper, but you do have more problems with cheaper bits. Once you know enough to judge the quality and fix it you can save a lot of money. It doesn't help when people like Hobby King make stupid claims about their 401 gyro, saying it is as good as the Futaba 401. Also there is a big difference between an experienced flyer who can detect a fault before it causes a problem and a beginner who doesn't know if the problem is his/hers or the heli. If I had the money I would pay for quality. You can cut costs if you are short of money or want to prove a point. I found the Flasher 450 a very good clone, but unforunately it is no longer being sold.

My next step is probably going to be the Tarot flybarless and Savox cyclics.

[Benjbrit123]

Hopefully horizon will let me try out there new 500x when im at Air im just getting a sence tht blade helis might be good as back feild garden beaters ! although i would be supprized if the 500x is better than my protos :P

[raptormark]

Harry will have them all at air so will the rest of the team so you will be able to try

[LaurenceGough]

Yep, you're more than welcome to give mine a fly too at the Funfly . Same for anyone. If it's anything like the Blade 450X it's going to fly amazing .

[Benjbrit123]

Harry will have them all at air so will the rest of the team so you will be able to try

Does that include the 130x