Great review! I was one of the early adopters of the Blade SR. While it flew great, I had a lot of problems with orientation... so much so that I had a very expensive crash the 2nd day I had it. I was down for two weeks waiting for parts, and the cost of the parts was over $100 to repair. Once I got it fixed, I tried flying it again and lost orientation again. Luckily I didn't crash it that time so I sold it. I have a Blade 400, a T-Rex 500, and a Blade mSR that I don't have a problem with... not sure what was up with me and the SR.

Regardless, it's a great flying heli; just wasn't for me.

great review but imho any heli with a tail motor belongs in the rubbish bin.

Nice review, but... why is there no video of the author flying it as described in the review?

Like the review,would also like to see more video. Full flights and especially some of the flying in 10 mph wind with gusts. I bought one when they first came out to mess around with,having flown the original blade cp the brushless motor and gyro really improved flight over the original but more aggressive flying seemed held back a bit with the toned down radio setting for me. The frame,new main gear,new mainshaft,longer heavier blades etc do make this blade a much different model then the original and it does fly much smoother and seemed a lot more stable then the original. The controls are toned down and the cyclic seemed a bit restricted in movment for loops and rolls but i guess a more experienced heli pilot could do them no problem with the stock radio and no changes to the heli. I ended up letting a buddy whos trying to learn to fly helis try it.. that was the real test. He had my old blade cp and had difficulty just hovering it and gave up after many repairs and crashes and the cp has sat for atleast a year. He hovered the blade sr really well and smooth with good control the first time i let him try it with training gear and a little coaching. He has it now and has crashed it a few times but his biggest problem has been windy conditions.. but that can be difficult for any pilot and especially a learning cp heli pilot. He's only tryed to fly helis with the blade cp and now the sr and can fly planes fine but has been practicing with a sim for helis after he gave up with the cp. This is my first flight with it,i trimmed it out in the back yard the day before a little but the yard is kind of small for me with a heli so i took it to the park the next morning. I thought it flew pretty nice for a small heli with a direct drive tail and the toned down controls,it doesnt fly as well as a 450 or anything but should be good for the pilots its intended for and is pretty stable and docile on the controls compared to previous cp helis from e-flite.

E-Flite Blade SR Loops And Crash! (8 min 50 sec)

I found the best thing for making the SR easier to handle in windy conditions is to use a higher head speed. Has your friend tried idle up?

Going off to work in a few minutes. I will get a video of me flying the SR as described linked to this review when I get a chance. Will have to check to see if I burned any videos of me to disk or simply deleted and need to reshoot. I simply posted the videos I thought were the most interesting and Jeff is definitely a better demo pilot then myself when it comes to helicopters especially. Trying to wrap up some other reviews right now in my "spare time." Mike Heer

The use of training gear would help prevent the comment " Main rotor blades wore very quickly when touching concrete while spinning " beeing in the minuses. IMO it is not a "minus" on the heli.

A video showing how training gear help prevent the heli tip over on bad landing would make people realize that this very usefull tool is a must have to learn flying helis (protects both the heli and the wallet ).

I have that rotors shredding in both the plus and the minus sections. Plus as it saved the rest of the helicopter from any damage. Minus because I needed to replace the main rotors with the spares I had. As for the training gear I did mention it. I couldn't review it as it was not available at the time I wrote this review. I will check back tonight for any additional comments. Have a great day and thanks for checking out this review. Mike H

Excellent as always, MH.

Have you data on the 5-flight tailmotors that plagued early releases? Seemed to correlate with a particular motor datecode, which we might assume has been used up or purged from inventory, since you didn't encounter the problem.

I still differ with the decision to sell as RTF only, with the transmitter jiggered. A single page in the instructions could have listed the same rate and expo values for programming into DX-series transmitters. And the decision betrayed the BNF concept which Eflite pioneered.

I can see the logic, that a transitional pilot is not likely to own a DX and no fixed controller could substitute. Guess I'm weird, being a transitional pilot who DOES own a DX.

my opinion about this heli is the same as when it just came out; a solution looking for a problem.
If you can fly the msr get the blade 400 and save your money paying for a "once use" transmitter and battery pack you also have no further use for.
The blade 400 with proper tuning like expo can be made as tame as this one and allouw you to grow more.

btw any rotorblade that hits concrete needs to be replaced or can fail a next flight.
Even shiny carbon blades would be ready for the bin.
Wood is good enough and cheap while saving more expensive parts from damage.

Nice review, Mike. It was a great idea to let some transitioning pilots try it, since that's the intended end user. My issue with this heli is availability. I saw it at my LHS a couple months ago, and was interested, but didn't pull the trigger. Now Horizon's site shows a July delivery. I've been waiting a long time. I'd assume people waiting for parts are even more torqued about than I am, since the only thing worse than no heli to fly is a heli that doesn't fly! I've already got a belt driven tail kit waiting to go on one. Oh well, good thing come to those who wait!
MR2

This is a very nice review. I just purchased my Sr two days ago and so far I love it. I too have transitioned from coaxial to MSR to the SR. In my opinion the MSR has been one of the most fun birds I've flown. I also own a DX7 and even though I don't fault E-Flyte for selling this bird as a RTF I believe that a one page settings list in the owners manual would have been nice. That way pilots without DX radios could use the included radio and those with DX's could be all set up to transition to collective pitch with a radio they are used to. I have only flown Blade heli's and so far I'm satisfied but being more customer aware would help.

Very well written review.

I got the SR about a month ago. I like it and it flys very well. The tail is ok for sport flying and very mild 3D and thats what this heli was design for. The stock radio setting makes it hard to fly in normal mode with any wind . In idle up wind isnt much of an issues. The SR really comes alive and fly really well when hooked up to a better more adjustable radio. So once you have mastered th eSR with the stock radio try it hooked up to a dx6i or dx7. It really makes it fly better