E-flite Blade SR RTF helicopter

The recently released (early 2010) E-flite Blade SR is an electric RTF helicopter that fills a hole in the rc heli market, and is the first Collective Pitch (CP) helicopter that actively addresses the issue of stability and 'learner friendliness'.

The E-flite Blade range of electric rc helicopters has long been one of the most popular ranges of helis for beginner and intermediate flyers alike, and as someone who owns a couple of them I can personally give them a thumbs up. But it's no secret that learning to fly a collective pitch (CP) rc helicopter like the Blade 400 is very difficult and time-consuming, due to a single rotor helicopter's inherent instability in the air and the related control co-ordination needed at the transmitter sticks.

At the other end of the learning curve are the coaxial rc helicopters such as the popular Blade CX, which can more or less be flown straight from the box without any prior experience.

Somewhere in between the coaxials and the CP's are the fixed pitch (FP) electric helicopters that are single rotor so are harder to master like a CP one but aren't as agile in the air; they're a good introduction to single rotor helicopter flying, but that's about it.

The E-flite Blade SR slots very nicely in to the 'easier to master CP' category because that's exactly what the design team wanted to achieve with it; a fully functional collective pitch helicopter that's had it's unstable flight characteristics noticeably reduced and tamed, thus making it a lot more appealing to those who want to fly a CP heli but are too scared to try!

Above: a coaxial, fixed pitch, Blade SR & bigger collective pitch
helicopter in order of 'learnability'

Essentially the E-flite Blade SR operates with a slower head speed than most CP helicopters and, more importantly, heavily dampened control responses. In real terms this means that you can move the transmitter sticks a lot more 'carelessly' and the helicopter won't punish you by shooting off in a direction you weren't expecting, and probably crashing, before you have time to react. This is the reality of learning to fly a standard collective pitch rc helicopter!

The video below clearly shows the stability of the E-flite Blade SR...

As you can see, abusing the transmitter sticks doesn't have the fatal effect that it would have if you were learning on any other collective pitch electric rc helicopter! This is a huge benefit to the Blade SR flyer.

So if you've been wanting to try your hand at flying a proper CP helicopter but have so far been put off by the horror stories about how difficult they are to fly (which they are, take it from me!), then maybe the E-flite Blade SR is your best option. Or if you're already a confident coaxial or fixed pitch heli flyer and are looking for the next step up, this is the bird for you.

See the Blade SR in more detail.