Got to say, I still really like this bird.

[Zermelo]

I know this forum is pretty slow due to the declining interest in this bird, but I have to say, I still like flying it.

I also know there are other alternative micros out there with cheaper parts and are more powerful, but for me 80% of the time as long as I'm flying over grass, I can pick it up pop the skids back on and whatever linkages came off and fly again just as good as before.

Last year, I bought 3 or 4 of these helis as people were letting them go pretty cheap with a lot of parts, and I've been flying them as trainers and backup helis in case one of my bigger birds crashed. And for me they just make more sense financially at a time where money is kind of tight.

I have to say, I've never really like Blade helis, I started out with them as many people did because that is all, or the majority of what, my LHS sold. I didn't learn anything good on the 120sr, no sorry, I did learned to hover, everything else gave me a bad tendency as it was a fixed pitch and you had to bring the stick all the way down to shut the motor off, at least the way I had it set up, so when I did go to collective helis, I ended up slamming a flew into the ground because of that habit. Also that 45 degree flybar, gave it really bad flying tendencies.

The blade SR was just a nightmare. I spent a lot of money trying to make that thing fly better, but that tail never really held right, and slow cyclic was even worse. I also had a blade 450 3d, while it flew ok, it was my first REAL collective pitch heli, and the first crash virtually all the major pieces broke since they were all plastic. It wasn't even worth the money at the time to rebuild.

I also had a blade mcpx and while it was ok, it was so underpowered and tail was so bad, that any inverted practice was too challenging, but what I did like about it was its crash resistance.

After that I just stuck to other brands Align, SAB, KDS, etc. I came back to the mcpx bl because it seemed to fix the problems with the mcpx while retaining it's resilience.

Unfortunately the used one I bought, after about 2 crashes the 3 in 1 went, and sat around doing nothing as I wasn't going to spend $80+ on the board or send it in to have it temporarily fixed.

last year as I said I came back to this bird after buying a number of them cheap with extra parts and been really liking them ever since. I think the mcpx bl is the perfect size that has serious crash resistance and enough power and collective pitch robustness to actually teach you new 3d moves.

I know this post is kind of rambling, but I guess find it disappointing that Blade has discontinued one of the helis that made the most sense to buy. I know they now have some smaller helis with their SAFE technology, but I looked at all of them and none have the crash resistance of the mcpx, and that makes all the difference to me. If I am going to fly a micro or mini heli, it's going to be because I have a great chance of flying it in case it crashes. The slightly bigger size and extra power of the new "micros" still makes it more likely than not to suffer enough damage as to put them out of commission. The SAFE technology does not necessarily prevent this although that's where Blade wants to go, to try to prevent the crashes. Just about every FBl unit offers rescue, and it has to be set up and used properly to work. 95% of my FBL units have rescue and sometimes it does save them, but others things are happening too fast or you simply forget or the heli goes behind you, etc, etc. So a heli that actually recovers from a crash just works better for me.

If I want more power, I would go 450 and up, but if I want to have piece of mind, or try new moves I've practiced on the sim, the mcpx fits the bill perfectly.

If the 3 in 1 was more resilient then it would be even better. I guess all that is to say, I still think this is one of blades best micros even in 2017.

[Chris1683]

I agree to an extent. This is a very durable little heli with a TON of power which every other micro seemed to lack. I also like you bought some second hand MCPX BL's to learn 3D on. I find that it is generally crash resistant but does seem to have weak points on the landing skids & canopies, and of course the board. My biggest gripe with the BL is the extremely fragile pushrods. I find after every crash I am bending them back into place as they get a bend and it affects the pitch of the heli.

I ended up getting my first BL and the board failed upon the first crash. I sent it to Mega's Micro's for repair and it came back like new. Been flying it ever since and haven't had any issues.

Many of the parts for it are dirt cheap these days (other than the board) so thats why I love flying it. I'm not afraid to crash it.

As far as Horizon discontinuing it, it seems as if everything with AS3X has been dumped from their line in favor of their SAFE technology. SAFE is a good "helper" but really had no benefit other than when learning inverted flight at a fairly high altitude. If you are near the ground inverted and try to recover it may end up crashing anyway. The Nano CPS was my first collective and when I got tired of it I bought the CPX to go brushless, the MCPX BL for power and I just recently got a 130X. I guess I am going backwards in time!