Have Some Fun | E-Flite Blade 120 SR Review

The E-Flite Blade 120 SR is a perfect first-time helicopter. For anyone who's been to a hobby shop and seen the much larger Align series or even the Blade SR or Blade 400, the 120 SR seems downright tiny. Even if you have the money for a larger machine, I would recommend saving it until you master the 120 SR. That decision not only saved me hundreds of dollars, but hours of frustration as well.

I live about two hours from my nearest hobby shop, so my decision to visit one involved a bit of work. I'm glad I did, because I never would have chosen the little 120 SR if I hadn't.

A Google search revealed quite a few hobby shops, but I chose one that had both a physical store and an online presence. Colpar Hobbies has two brick and mortar stores in the Denver metro area as well as an online store. This allowed me to shop prices before calling or walking in, and I enjoy that convenience.

Walking into the store, I was overwhelmed by the sheer selection of flying machines available to the RC enthusiast today. Because I was interested in helicopters, I immediately gravitated toward the Align T-rex 500 sitting on the counter. Even at rest, it's a bit intimidating due to its size. I quickly fell into conversation with Jeff, Colpar's resident helicopter expert.


Jeff was more than happy to show me all of the latest and greatest toys on the market. He even showed me the latest radio gear, and pulled out a Blade 400 to look at. During our conversation, he learned that I had never flown an RC helicopter--only RC cars. I also informed him that I was a full-scale pilot and former flight instructor. As we were discussing the Blade 400, I asked if that would be the helicopter to get. His answer was simple.

"Think of the Blade 400 as a Sukhoi 31 aerobatic airplane," he said. "The Sukhoi is fast and responsive. It's very sensitive to control inputs--not the ideal trainer. You want to start out on something docile and forgiving; like a Cessna."

That made sense to me. I would never want a student pilot to start out in a Sukhoi. After he said that, he pulled down a box containing the 120 SR, sat it on the counter and opened it up.

The 120 SR looks like a delicate mix of tiny plastic and carbon parts. It doesn't give the impression of being robust at all. My first thought was that the slightest crash would utterly destroy this flimsy little machine. In addition, the supplied MLP4 DSM 4-channel transmitter reminds me of the cheap plastic transmitters supplied with Air Hogs helicopters you'd buy at Target.

The DX6i transmitter supplied with the Blade 400 is very appealing, and since it was still sitting there on the counter next to the 120 SR, I was hesitant. Jeff put those doubts to rest.

"Don't let looks deceive you," he said. "This is a very precise, high quality transmitter. The DX6i is a very good radio, but this one is very capable."

He then took out a Blade CX2 to demonstrate the amount of control available with the little black transmitter. Indeed, I was impressed. Both with the CX2 and the radio.

Jeff extinguished any remaining doubts I may have had about pulling the trigger on the 120 SR.

"When you learn how to fly this helicopter," he said, "You'll be able to fly any helicopter in this shop."

That did it for me. I decided right then to make the purchase. Before I headed to the counter, Jeff recommended I buy spare batteries; an extra tail rotor; spare rotor blades and a spare set of landing gear.

"Those are the parts that break the most," he said.

Three weeks later, I can say he was spot-on.

After charging the batteries (I purchased two extra), I turned on the transmitter and hooked the flight battery to the helicopter (without reading the instructions--my first mistake). After it initialized (which you must let it do sitting still on a table top), I slid the battery into its catch in front of the main gear and sat the helicopter down on the floor of my condo. My living room is only about 200 square feet, so I don't have a lot to play with. With a couch, kitchen table, television and various other obstacles, my learning curve was going to be steep. 

When you first push the throttle forward on the controller, the rotor blades spinning to life immediately get your attention. Even this little helicopter seems mildly threatening with its whirling plastic blades. And that's while it's still safely on the ground. 

As I slowly brought in the power, the helicopter got light on its skids, began to drift left and immediately rolled onto its side as the left skid got hung up on the carpet. This was my first lesson in dynamic rollover--a phenomenon that affects full-scale helicopters with poor dampening in their landing skids, or when they too get their skids caught on ground-based objects. Believe me, you'll get very familiar with dynamic rollover and gyroscopic effects within seconds of your first "flight." After collecting my machine, I looked it over carefully for any damage I may have caused. Luckily, this thing is built to take the punishment, and the only bruising was to my ego. 

Placing the helicopter back in front of me, I was ready to go again. This time, I brought the power up more quickly, and it immediately lifted off the ground and began to drift to the left. I countered with too much right aileron, and it shot off to the right--into the couch. I didn't know a couch could do that to a helicopter! The second the blades touched the edge of the couch, the helicopter fell to the ground and began hopping around like it was having a seizure. Again, the helicopter wasn't damaged, and again I placed it back in front of me. 

For the next hour or so, I continued to "take off," crash and reset. My palms were sweating, my heart was racing and I was holding my breath for what seemed like minutes at a stretch. Looking back, I was only holding my breath while "flying," so it was only a few seconds at a time. Exhausted and defeated, I called it a night. I had gained no appreciable skill over when I started out the evening, and I seriously wondered why I had spent nearly 200 dollars on this little devil of a flying machine. I was completely at the mercy of this infernal machine.   

The next day, I flew in the morning and evening. I slowly began to get the hang of up and down, and started to get a feel for left and right rudder, but the cyclic (aileron and elevator) was still an enigma. 

Helicopters are momentum machines. Think of the rotor blades as a disc with a string in the middle. If you pull up on the string (add throttle), the helicopter will lift up. If you move the string in any direction (cyclic), the disc will lean, and the helicopter will begin accelerating in that direction. Notice I said accelerating. If you don't move to correct the tilt, the helicopter will quickly slam into whatever object happens to be in the direction of travel. The problem I encountered was that I would get the helicopter moving in one direction, it would start to get out of control, and I would over control in the opposite direction. This cycle is known as a pilot induced oscillation (PIO). New pilots, be they full-scale or RC, tend to over control their aircraft. Not touching the stick goes a long way toward recovery in this instance. 

Don't kid yourself. Learning to hover and fly the 120 SR will take days. And that's just with the nose pointing away from you. You'll go to bed one night thinking you've got it, pick up the controller the next day, and be surprised that you've lost everything you had the previous evening. There's nothing intuitive about it. Eventually though, you'll get to a point where you can start to recover from near disaster without crashing. When you are able to carry on a conversation with someone while flying your helicopter, it's time to turn it around and face it toward you. The conversation will immediately stop.

Full-scale aviation is easy--you're always sitting in the same spot, so your point of view never changes. Model helicopters, on the other hand, require you to learn how to fly from every perspective. Unless you always want to fly with the tail facing you, which would get boring rather quickly, you'll need to master nose-in and sideways orientations as well. The learning curve is exactly the same as when you first started out. You'll over control, panic and crash a lot. Eventually, it starts to make sense, and you'll slowly get the hang of it. Of course, you'll lose it overnight and wonder what happened, but it begins to sink in. 

If you fly every day, it will take a couple weeks for you to get comfortable flying your helicopter the way you imagined when you first started flying.

The beauty of the 120 SR is in its simplicity. It's minimal weight is the key to it being able to survive crash damage that would put a larger helicopter out of commission. You can cut the throttle at ten feet, and it will survive the fall. I've used all of the parts Jeff suggested, and one extra set of main rotor blades.

Some of the parts I've had to replace. Extra batteries are a must for more flight time.

Today, I can take the little 120 SR outside and perform maneuvers I couldn't have imagined two weeks ago. Jeff's advice was golden. I know without a doubt I'm ready to move up to a larger collective pitch helicopter.