Considering a Blade 400 with Spektrum...

[rnbiker]

I'm thinking about picking up a Blade 400 with the Spektrum radio included for $399. Does anyone have any input on this particular model? Do you like them, do they fly well, is it easy to get parts/fix....etc. Any input it greatly appreciated. I currently own an Esky Belt CP and a full Extreme-ized Esky Lama v3. Come on Helifreaks.....let me know what you think about the Blade 400 and whether or not I should buy one. Thanks... :noteworthy

[MScott500]

Hey rnbiker. I've had my blade 400 for about a month and a half. I've had very good luck with it. A couple of crashes caused by me, but the heli is quite capable of extreme flight at a fractoin of the price of setting up a Trex. Dont get me wrong, the Trex brand has been top notch quality, but if you want a heli ready to fly out of the box, the blade 400 is a good choice. Good luck. Mike.

[MScott500]

Oh I almost forgot. The part's for this heli are readily available at any LHS that sells E-Flite brand, or there are many heli websites that have every replacement part for the blade 400. Prices arent too bad. Most expensive is main blades at $12.99. Good part is that most of the part's come in packages of two, giving you a stock of backup part's. The heli itself is quite easy to dissasemble and rebuild. Hope this help's you out. Mike.

[rnbiker]

Mike... Thanks a bunch for the input. I really appreciate it. I really like the way this Blade 400 is packaged and the price seems right. My LHS doesn't stock any parts for my Belt CP and I'm getting so tired of the long wait for replacement parts to get another chance to practice flying. I like the Belt CP okay, but it seems to me that the mechanicals could have been a little better designed. The head setup is so complicated on the Belt, that I was actually considering buying a flybarless system for it! Man, would it be some kind of crazy to spend more on a flybarless system than I paid for the entire helicopter package?!?! I'm really hoping that the Blade 400 lives up to its claim that it is "completely setup and ready to fly in a hover straight out of the box". Was this your experience, or did you have to set yours up to get it to hover correctly?