I’m going to talk about 2 Blade helicopters, one the Blade 150 FX, and the other the Blade 230 S Smart.
Both are said to be beginner helicopters. I started with the Blade 150 FX, mainly because of cost… Though it would be painful, it looked the least amount of money to spend that might just end up getting lost or completely broken… It is a very small helicopter, meant for indoor, and outdoor in very light winds.
So when I picked it up the clerk said… dont fly it outdoors if there is any wind at all. After weeks of experience with it I now understand what he meant. Fortunately we had a spell of almost windless days when I first got it. and It only took a few flights to get the hang of just hovering it. I found that it could handle winds up to 4mph. A very nice thing about it.. it is so light that even if it gets away and gets up too high to handle, being light, if it drops on grass it seems indestructible. Also since it is so light no FAA registration is required.
The are some drawback due to it’s small size and color scheme. It is 100% red. so unless you keep it close, you can easily lose the sense of which direction it is pointed. the other drawback.. if it falls into tall weeds (like we have at our flying field) forget about it, you wont see it unless you are standing right next to it. I almost lost it on the second flight because I lost orientation, and the wind took it to the weeds. 5 people searched for it, and it was only due to the keen eyes of my wife, she was able to direct one person to the exact spot it crashed.
Also a drawback… it has no landing skids. so the body just sets down on the ground to take off.. so it can not take off from a normal lawn.. I have to place down a piece of cardboard as a platform to fly it from my yard. At the flying field the grass is trimmed extremely low.. so it can take off, but even there if it is not perfectly level set on the ground, it will flop around as soon as you turn off the rotor kill switch.
Having said all that, I really enjoy flying it… it did’nt take too many sessions to learn to hover it in low winds. However, we’re getting on towards fall, and the winds have picked up considerably, so it’s typically 7 to 11 mph all day (unless you go near sunset). It absolutely can not be flown in those winds (no one should expect it to), I did try a few times, It just does not have the power to fight back against the wind pushing it in a direction… and the copter will seriously weather vane into the wind making leaning harder since it’s best to keep the tail rotor pointed toward you as you learn.
So then I moved on to the Blade 230 S Smart. This is a different animal. It’s meant for outdoor use. I’ve seen it being flown at the field in winds up to about 9mph. So that seems just right for me right now. And there are some nice things about it. It has an actual SAFE system.. meaning you get a real Beginner, Intermediate and Agile flying modes. I got mine today, charged up the (not included) battery and was off to the flying field for it’s maiden flight. Winds were 7mph… It’s RTF and it’s a true RTF, you can take it out of the box, and in the time it takes to put the battery in, you are flying. Same for the 150.
And the first flight was a dream… the wind was a cross wind to the direction I had it pointed, so I made sure it was in beginner mode, flipped the throttle switch, and let the rotor stabilize, then very cautiously added power until lift off. It was a very simple matter to give it just enough power to achieve a hover at about 10 feet off the ground. And I have to say that hover was extremely stable. I had to only use small inputs to account for some side to side motion and I was able at one point to just take my hands off the sticks. A gust of wind did come, and I over compensated on the power so it went up higher than I like, but it was very easy to ease it down for a soft landing. Oh.. at one point I did give it some yaw and I have to say it was very responsive to yaw input… so go lightly. (I had the rate switch set to high).
I know I’m going to enjoy learning on that helicopter. And I plan to bring along the 150 in the event the winds are nice and light, so I can fly that while charging the 230’s battery.
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