MCPX Blade Helicopter Review Pics and Video

I picked up the Blade MCPX helicopter a couple of weeks ago and wanted to share my experience good and bad with it.

I’ve flown and reviewed a friend’s Blade MSR and thought it was great so when I had the chance I bought the bind-n-fly (BNF) version of the EFlite MCPX since I already had a Spektrum compatible transmitter, a Futaba 9CHP computer radio with the Spektrum 2.4Ghz module). The helicopter was fairly easy to setup in the computer radio and after looking around a bit I found some good five point pitch and throttle curves for the machine. If you don’t have a 2.4 Ghz Spektrum compatible radio you can buy the Ready-to-Fly version of the Eflite mCP X for a little bit more.

The pitch and throttle curves I used for the Blade MCPX on my Futaba 9CHP radio are as follows and are just for initial setup. I updated these on 7/12 with my latest settings. Despite which settings you use, you should make sure with the throttle at mid-stick in idle-up your pitch is zero-degrees. Make sure you have activated and tested throttle hold before moving the throttle up to mid-stick.

NORMAL MODE
THROT1: 0.0%     PITCH-1: 30.0%
THROT2: 40.0%    PITCH-2: 39.0%
THROT3: 60.0%    PITCH-3: 48.0%
THROT4: 80.0%    PITCH-4: 85.0%
THROT5: 100.0%   PITCH-5: 100.0%

IDLE UP 1
THROT1: 100.0%   PITCH-1: 0.0%
THROT2: 100.0%   PITCH-2: 24.0%
THROT3: 100.0%   PITCH-3: 48.0%
THROT4: 100.0%   PITCH-4: 74.0%
THROT5: 100.0%   PITCH-5: 100.0%

CONTROL THROWS Aileron: 110%
Elevator: 110%
Rudder: 110%

Remember to set a throttle hold switch to keep the little helicopter from beating itself to death if you crash in idle up.

The mCP X uses the familiar eFlite linear Micro-Servos on an all-in one board which contains the 3 cyclic servos, the speed control for the main motor and the tail and the flybarless control. The blade mCP X is a flybarless design as well and does a pretty good job at it.

With that out of the way I went outdoors and flew the helicopter. It flies stupid but it’s a lot of fun. While the Blade mCP X isn’t capable of performing advanced 3D maneuvers very well but it can do some of the basic aerobatic flying such as loops, flips, rolls and inverted flying well enough to learn them.

The flipping of the mCP X is where the ‘stupid’ part comes in. It takes a little work and some altitude. It doesn’t flip cleanly like it’s larger counter-parts you might be used to. Stationary rolls are the same way, but a bit better when in forward flight. In backwards flips the tail can sometimes blow out quickly.

Forward flights is pretty quick and stable, turns are a piece of cake. Backwards flight can be a bit tricky as you’ll find the tail will blow out on you if you’re going too fast. There’s been some mods to solve this problem, such as lengthening the mCP X’s tail boom by 2 centimeters that is supposed to help by giving the tail rotor more leverage. My friend Ollie tried this mod but he said it didn’t really make a big difference in the tail letting loose in backwards flight.

The mCP X Blade helicopter’s original version had a problem with the blades and blade grip separating from the helicopter. This is not a problem anymore. They recalled them and redesigned the blade grips to resolve this issue. If you want to be sure you get the latest version check the top of the blade grip for the letter ‘B’. Most reputable hobby shops are selling the proper version and if you somehow end up with the older version you can contact Horizon Hobby for the proper B grips but it’s highly unlikely you’ll get an old model.

When you look at the helicopter you’ll notice that the push-rods, ball links and other components are pretty small. It seems like they would break in an instant, and they can, but after numerous Blade mCP X crashes I’ve had relatively little damage. I primarily damage the tail booms. The most valuable spares to have are the Feathering Spindle, tail booms and main shaft bearings (if you’re flying over grass, they tend to disappear if the gear comes off). If you want to switch up the color scheme a little you can get the green canopy set set as well.

My first tail boom I broke in half near the body of the heli. I tried to glue the carbon tail tube it back together with CA which worked in flight, but it quickly failed after hitting the ground a couple of more times.

Ollie gave me his spare tail boom and it flew great for a bit but I tried something goofy and ran into the ground which caused the tail boom to split in several spots length-wise. To fix this I pulled the tail boom from the helicopter and disconnected the electrical connector for it. I tacked a piece of string halfway down the tail boom with thin CA, let it cure a bit, and then wound the string around the tail boom towards the tip and then dribbled CA over it to secure it. You have to remember to leave enough room at the front of the boom to slide back into the helicopter body. If you spill a little CA onto the area that slides into the heli, you can trim it off with an Exacto knife This fix has worked out well, saved $10 and survived a fair number more of accidents. The tail booms aren’t the only thing Ollie’s given me though.

I did manage to bend the feathering shaft of the MCPX as well, but they’re light weight and it wasn’t hard to pull it out and straighten it up. You can buy a bunch of new ones if you demand perfection, but bending them back works out fairly well.

Also when you crash the MCPX sometimes the main gear will slide down the shaft. This is pretty easy to fix. Grab beneath the gear with your pointing and middle finger and press on the top center of the rotor head with your them to gently pull it back together. Pretty much like using a syringe when you apply epoxy. The main gear does have a notch in it which aligns with a flat spot on the carbon main shaft so you’ll want to try and line that up right. Do not pin or glue the gear onto the mainshaft of the MCPX. Something has to give and it’s better for it to be this little, easily fixable part than ripping the head off or splintering the main shaft.

Other than those items the most common problem I’ve had in a crash is having to pop the rotor head ball links back on their balls. I’ve not had any major component damage aside from the tail and I’ve crashed into my gravel driveway, bricks, lots of grass and even some bushes and trees.

Here’s a video of my buddy Ollie landing his MCPX inverted on the underside of a table. It took him quite a few attempts which I promised not to post, but he did get it on this go around. Getting the Blade MCPX off of the underside of the table proved a bit more difficult.

Overall this is a really fun little helicopter to fly even though it flies ‘stupid’. It’s a great little micro to take with you and fly around almost anywhere when you have some time. It’s not quite going to fly like your 450 and it’s not and simplified as the Blade MSR. The price is within reason for helicopters of this size that are backed and well supported by the manufacturer.

I did buy some 300mAh batteries from HobbyKing, the stock battery is 200mAh. The great thing is that these HobbyKing batteries fit in the mCP X blade without any modification to the helicopter. They have the same plastic collar on the battery, same connector and everything and were less than $5 a piece. You can absolutely tell a difference between the stock 200mAh pack and the Turnigy nano-tech 300mAh packs.

If you want to hop this heli up even more there’s a lot of brushless motor modifications and other things to increase the performance. Like any R/C helicopter you can spend a ton of money to improve the performance. Check out these three videos from liftbag on YT for an idea on how far you can go.

If you love R/C helicopters and just want something you can buzz around the yard and have fun with I’d highly recommend the mCP X blade helicopter. It’s a great deal of fun and is very survivable in crashes for most yard obstacles. Just remember that throttle hold switch, it’ll save your heli many times over!