Blade mCX Electric Micro RC Helicopter by E-flite
Ranked #11,042 in Hobbies, Games & Toys, #152,660 overall
The best beginner full 4-channel radio controlled coaxial helicopter there is!
The small size means that this helicopter is fun to fly indoors in your basement or living room, for example. It also means that should you happen to crash into something, the low mass of the helicopter means that the force of the impact will be small, so it is much less likely to break something. Also, should something actually break, since the components are small they are also cheap. And there are great deals to be found online for spare parts and upgrades to this heli, so of which can enhance flying performance quite a lot once you've mastered the basics of helicopter flying!
New Poll: Getting a Blade mCX?
The main advantages of the Blade mCX
Important points to consider when getting a radio controlled helicopter
The points that impresses me the most about the Blade mCX are:- Its incredibly well-engineered design
- The quality of the parts (E-flite is an employee-owned American company)
- The robustness and flight characteristics make it both agile and durable
The Blade mCX is extremely stable, thanks to the coaxial counter-rotation main rotors. It comes with spare blades, some spare parts, and a battery-powered battery charger (who ever heard of such a thing!), powered by 4 AA batteries, also included, which means that you can take it with you to the park or the field and recharge your flight battery there on the spot. The fun never has to stop! There are also more powerful 120 mAh and 150 mAh extra batteries available to buy separately which enable longer flight times. Flight times over 10 minutes are certainly possible.
Introducing the Blade mCX S300
A scale, realistic looking, micro electric helicopter!
You now have a second alternative when buying a Blade mCX: the mCX S300 features a scale body of the real Schweizer 300C helicopter. That means it looks just like a real, full-sized helicopter, only the scale of it is, of course, much smaller! The only difference between the original mCX and the mCX S300 is the looks, the specifications are the same. So when choosing which of them to buy, you only need to consider which look you like the most, everything else applies equally to both helis.
Specifications and available versions
It's available as Ready-to-Fly (RTF) and Bind-and-Fly (BNF)
When you buy your Blade mCX, whether the original or the S300 version, you can choose between two sets. One is called Ready-to-Fly (RTF) and the other is called Bind-and-Fly (BNF). Basically what this means is that in RTF the transmitter (the controller that is used to fly a radio controlled helicopter) is included. In the BNF box a transmitter is not included, which means that you can get your own, favorite transmitter and use that to fly the helicopter. Or if you buy more than one helicopter at the same time, such as one original mCX, one S300, and/or a Blade mSR, you only need to get one of them as RTF, since you can use the controller included in any one of those RTF sets with all the other BNF sets.
Other than the transmitter, the two sets are identical. The charger and spare parts are included in both sets. The Blade mCX helicopter in itself is of course also the same. In the S300 sets you also get an extra pair of white rotor blades with red and blue decals that you can use to customize the appearance of the heli to your liking.
Here are the technical specs for the Blade mCX:
- Main rotor diameter: 190 mm (7.5 in)
- Total length: Original: 200 mm (7.9 in), S300: 150 mm (6 in)
- Flying weight: 28 g (1 oz) including 110 mAh battery
- Battery: 1 cell Li-Po (lithium polymer hybrid), 3.7 V
- Radio standard: 2.4 GHz DSM2 compatible with all DSM radios
- Radio channels: 4 channels: throttle, yaw, fore/aft and left/right cyclic
- Color: Original: yellow, S300: white; canopies also available separately
Buy the Blade mCX online
Tip on a great combo deal
How I got into the micro rc helicopter hobby
The Blade mCX is probably one of the very best beginner's RC helicopters out there, especially since it can be flown indoors, making practice easy (you don't depend on the weather being good, nor on having to find a large enough space to fly in). With it, you'll learn how to control a real RC helicopter and master different flight scenarios. But the Blade mCX also has a more challenging sibling known as the Blade mSR. However, the mSR can be a bit tricky to control at first, which is why I definitely recommend starting with an mCX. But once you've mastered the mCX, learning to fly the mSR will be a good challenge. And since you already know the basic maneuvers from flying the mCX, there is less risk of crashing the mSR due to pilot error.So stepping up to the mSR after the mCX is a natural progression. But don't worry that you'll loose interest in the mCX after you start flying the mSR; the mCX still excels at flying in small, indoor spaces. In the same space that it takes to hover the mSR, you can fly circles with the mCX. Anyway, you only need one transmitter for both of these. So you it is enough to buy one of them as RTF, then use the included controller to fly the other one as a BNF. Or you can go the route that I did and get a solid, future-proof, computerized transmitter (the DX6i) right from the start, then buy both the mCX and the mSR as BNF. Saves you quite a lot in the long run. This is what I did, and I highly recommend you do the same. Please see my Blade mSR lens for more information on both the mSR and the DX6i transmitter.
Read more about the Blade mSR and the DX6i transmitter
Parts for better performance and repairs
Tweaking and repairing is a big part of the hobby
I highly recommend getting some extra batteries, and keep them charged, so that you can keep flying continuously with only brief pit-stops to change and recharge the batteries. To extend the flight time and keep you in the air longer, I recommend getting 130 mAh LiPo batteries, that's 20 mAh more than the included battery, which translates to a minute or two longer in the air.
Comments are most welcome!
Questions regarding the mCX, comments, suggestions...
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Reply
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cobank
Nov 30, 2010 @ 9:23 am | delete
- This is cool blade rc helicopter article. Blade helicopter is a cool helicopter for me and i think almost people do.
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Reply
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TyGatti
Sep 30, 2010 @ 12:02 am | delete
- Love this heli, think I'm going to have to get one :)
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What people are saying about the Blade mSR
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