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140 of 140 found the following review helpful:
 Blade Get's It Right with the 120 SR Sep 20, 2010
By David Richardson
First off I have a couple of larger 450 size helis and was looking for a smaller front yard heli to fly when I am not flying the larger 450's. I was looking hard at the Blade MSR, but was concerned about performance in light wind. So when the Blade 120 SR came out it was exactly what I was looking for and I bought mine right here. It is nearly 4x heavier than the MSR and therefore handles light winds much better. It truly can fly outside in winds up to about 5-6 mph. It will fly in higher winds say up to 12-15 mph, but unless you are really a good pilot I would not recommend it.
Can you fly it in a house? Some here have suggested you can't and I would agree somewhat. I have flown mine indoors in a very small house and I can do limited things. Hover and some simple circles, etc. The other day I hit my mother-in-law in the leg. I swear it was an accident... No really it was! She barely noticed it, but I was a bit concerned. So be careful and stay within your piloting limits and you should be ok.
I am using it with a Spektrum DX7se transmitter and had no issues binding it. At times the 120 SR will loose its bind and I will need to rebind, but is is a fast and easy process. I simply push the bind bottom on my transmitter and turn it on with the 120 SR in bind mode. It takes about 10 seconds or less to bind.
It is a great trainer for beginners and for those with a little more experience. You can practice hovering in multiple positions, figure 8s, funnels, etc. Besides that it is a blast to fly and relatively safe. I would never recommend flying a 450 in your front yard unless you have a really really big front yard. Because of the 45 degree flybar you will not get quite the same feel as a full collective pitch 90 degree flybar heli, but for basic skills it is great. You can really get your eye/hand coordination trained and learn basic heli flying skills. It is just flat out fun to fly. When I fly my 450's there is a level of uneasiness to it ($$$), but with the 120 SR that is all gone. I am just having fun!
Stability:
The 45 degree flybar makes this a really easy heli to fly. If you simply let go of the right hand controls it will, if it has room, return to a semi-stable hover. Don't get me wrong this heli can be fast for a beginner and can, with the wrong control inputs, find objects quickly and crash. This is not a coaxial heli, but at the same time it is much faster and therefore more fun.
I have also owned a Blade CP Pro and this 120 SR is many times easier to fly. In fact, my 450's are easier to fly than the CP Pro. So if you are new to helis this is a great first/second heli. Just take it slow. If you think you are not in full control you are most likely not. If you are new to helis let me say staying in control is paramount to successful flying. Trust me I did the get it up there and then figure it out thing and I paid dearly. You will learn faster if you have a healthy heli.
There are some basic and advance settings on connector that connect the head linkage to the swash plate. I recommend going to the advance settings as quickly as you can especially if you are flying in light wind. This is a very simple process of finding the longer ball joints near the base of the rotatory head (swash plate) and pulling the linkage from the shorter ball joints and moving them to the longer ball joints. It takes about 5 minutes to do. you can do it with your fingers or gently with small needle nose pliers. You can see a Youtube on it if you look up '120 SR Advance Settings'.
Durability:
Ok, I have gotten pretty rough with this little heli. It has found the ground a number of times, trees, houses, camping tables, cars, my hand :), etc. I have only needed to replace the blades once. Two simple screws and it was up and flying in three minutes. Now if you think you are just going to toss it up and fly it like the pros you are going to get into many more repairs and loose valuable flying time. If I crashed my 450's like I do the 120 SR it would cost me hundreds of dollars. This heli has cost me about $7 to fly for hours.
Important Tip: To reduce repair costs please remember to throttle down the heli if you loose control. It will really help prevent damage to the heli. If I see that I have lost control and I am about to hit something I then back off the throttle immediately and go to zero throttle and it has really helped in limiting the damage to the object I hit and to the heli. This action may have saved my Mother-in-Laws life :)
Safety:
This is a pretty safe heli. I have had it hit my hand at full throttle and felt just a little sting, but it did not break the skin or anything like that. I am sure if the blade hit your eye it could cause a lot of damage so it is not harmless by any means, but compared to a larger heli this one is relatively safe heli. I crashed mine into my car and it did no damage that I could find to the car or to itself. So fairly safe. Please keep it away from small children, pets and others as a light breeze can cause unpredictable changes in flight.
Recommendations for Learning to fly:
I highly recommend that you slow down the learning process. Once you are setup and have tested the heli per the instructions. Please learn the basics before giving into the urge to just go for it, but I know it is hard to resist the desire to just take it off and fly. Trust me your repair bills will stay a lot lower if you just learn one step at a time and then move to the next. You probably won't listen to this advise; I know I didn't, but if you do you will have a lot more fun. It is easier to learn if your heli stays in flying condition. If you can't fly due to damage you can't learn as fast.
Start by practicing tail in hovering first. Take your time. Learn to land the heli gently on the skids. Do a lot of take offs and landing as practice. You should be able to hover (no wind) within a foot or two circle. GO SLOW! Then take short forward flights and bring it back tail in. Then increase the distance gradually. Then start practicing nose in hovering. Once you can nose in hover pretty good then make a simple circle. If you loose control bring it back to a tail in hover and start over. Then once the circle is mastered you can begin figure 8s. Again if you loose orientation bring the heli into a tail in hover and start over again. From here you can learn more aggressive flight maneuvers. Remember if you let go of the right stick the 120 SR will come into a semi-stable hover if it has the space.
Accessories:
If you buy a BNF you will need a DSM2 Transmitter JR/Spektrum type. Be sure, if buying the BNF 120 SR, that your transmitter is compatible.
As for spare parts, I would recommend that you buy some spare main blades, tail rotor blades and perhaps a spare tail boom. The swash plate can get loose with a lot of flying or abuse :O and may need to be replaced at some point. The landing gear is fairly durable, but you may wish to purchase a spare set. Also buy some spare little grommets that hold the canopy on as they are easily lost. Watch the tail fin as it comes loose in crashes. I have lost one in high winds after a crash.
Buy as many batteries as you would like time to fly. Flight times should be limited to 5 minutes to avoid killing the batteries. This is very important do not run your batteries beyond 5 minutes per flight or you will severely shorten the battery's life. It takes about 40-45 minutes to recharge a battery that has been used for 5 minutes so I bought 6 batteries plus the one that came with the 120 SR for a total of 7. That gives me about 35 minutes flight time, but 3-4 should be enough for most people. Hey if nothing else the included battery will get you flying until you can purchase more!
Conclusion:
This is a great heli and I am very satisfied with the flight characteristics. Super stable for a non-coaxial bladed heli. Tail is amazingly stable and holds direction better than I would have thought possible for for this type of heli. The construction may seem cheap to some who are new to helis, but the carbon fiber and plastic parts keep the weight down, which in turn keeps crash damage down to a minimum. The 45 degree flybar makes it a very stable fixed pitched single blade heli. Because it is a Blade product parts availability is pretty much everywhere. Most hobby shops will/do carry the parts. The 120 SR price may seem a little steep for some, but the 5-in-1 is a fairly complex piece of equipment and it does its job well. In my opinion this heli is a good value and a amazingly fun heli to fly. I have no regrets in my purchase and would do it again :)
19 of 19 found the following review helpful:
For those who want to fly, this is it. Dec 12, 2010
By Jim Royston
Its funny that everybody talks about the fixed pitch helicopters being a stepping stone to the godlike experience of flying collective pitch helicopters. "It's a nice trainer" is one phrase they say. "Good to learn the basics on" is another. I think this is all crazy talk. I got sucked into this train of thought and bought a more expensive collective pitch machine that I would almost have to quit my job to learn. I just don't have the time to figure out all of the things it takes to fly and maintain a collective pitch machine. I just want to fly.
After having it for a month now, I say that the Blade SR 120 is the perfect followup to the Blade MSR. It's a bigger MSR but with more punch! Since I have bought the SR 120, I fly the MSR inside only and the 120 outside. When I first got into helicopters I trained on the MCX for a week and then bought the MSR and flew it (and crashed it) over a hundred times inside and outside before I got it right and now the SR 120 comes along and it is so much better for flying outside. And whoever says it is no good to fly outside is really full of it in my opinion. There is nothing more entertaining and rewarding as fighting a strong breeze with the SR 120. It has a seemingly better power to weight ratio than the MSR and the extra mass (105 grams vs 26 grams) makes it controllable where the MSR would be blown away. Crashes are getting more and more rare but the few I've had with the 120 haven't resulted in more than one part broken and in most I have not broken any parts at all. I really love it.
If I had any advice to offer to someone getting into helis I would recommend that they buy the "Bind N Fly" or BNF version Blade MSR first along with a Spektrum DX6i transmitter and learn on those and then buy the BNF SR 120. After that, you might not see a need to go any "further" in pursuit of flying. Oh, and buy Lipo batteries four at a time and if you want them to last don't fly them until the heli hits it's LVC shutdown voltage. This roughly equates to flying the MSR for 5 minutes and the SR 120 for 6 minutes.
Epilog: I ran into tail motor troubles with the 120 and so I don't fly it so much since I haven't yet got the mfrs tech line on the phone. I have just bought the collective pitch McpX heli which is smaller but it has a three axis stability system and is superior to all of the fixed pitch micros. It is a really cool heli. I would skip the 120 and go for the MCPx. The MSR fixed pitch micro is good for learning orientation but the MCPx is three times the machine but takes some experience to fly. Still go for the bind and fly version and buy at least a Dx6i controller.
15 of 15 found the following review helpful:
next step up to a cp Sep 06, 2010
By Rene S. Hoepelman Jr.
If your bored with coax, this fixed picth heli will cure that, and its the next step to the ultimate goal of flying controllable pitch heli's. The 120SR is amazing to fly. Its a full fuctional heli. elevator up / down. Pitch forward / back. Full left / right rotation and yaw left and right. Its a handfull. That being said this is NOT exactly a beginner friendly heli, if this is your first you should have an expierenced pilot help you out.
Battery charges in about 1/2 hour and your ready to go again. Light weight, it can take some hits/ and rough landings but still be carful. Because its so new to the market, there are no cnc aftermarket upgrades that I have found yet, but my local hobby shop carries a full line of stock replacement / spare parts just in case and they are very inexpensive.
I do have to agree with nowhere on previous review. Its not quite powerful enough to fly outside in steady or sustained breezes and its not small enough to fly indoors unless you have a mansion and unlike the guys on youtube ......I dont have access to a high school gym. So I dont get to fly it as much as I like. To compensate I actaully went ahead and bought the blade msr micro which is an exact replica of the 120SR but much smaller for indoor flight.
Final thoughts: Awsome helicoptor, a little on the expenisve side but well worth it (you definitly get what you pay for). You can find a cp pro for same amount of money or less on ebay used with upgrades, But you have to learn to fly the 120SR before you can tackle something like that.
10 of 12 found the following review helpful:
 Nowhere Bird Aug 29, 2010
By Andi
Well, what to say, I was looking for a step up from a nano coax (mCX2) to not only fly in and around the house but also get familiar with a single blade heli. The Blade 120 SR was just released this month and appeared to be the right next step. It's a great heli, essentially a sized up mSR, ready to fly in minutes after charging the battery and binding it to a transmitter, the Spektrum DX6i in my case. And not that much heavier on the wallet than an mSR. I have only flown it for a minute or so but must say this a very robust and nice flying helicopter, met my expectations as a beginners next upgrade. Mostly due to the fact it is straight forward to operate and excellent to keep in a hover position. It seems crash resistant since the construction suggests that it may bend out of shape quite a bit before anything starts to break. The out-of-shape situation can be corrected quite easily.
There's only one problem, and depending on your situation it might be a big one: There's almost no place to fly it. Unless you live in a mansion of some kind or have frequent access to a gym-sized indoor facility, chances that you will be flying it indoors are close to nil. Too big and fast for an average residential home, don't even try. Leaves outdoors. This only works though if there is close to no wind. Too small and light to fly outdoors on most days it looks. I only tried outdoors a couple of times and eventually gave up since light winds will have it drift away quickly. Plus at the speed this bird is moving it may be too overwhelming in windy conditions for a beginner or coax upgrader to control it safely. So for now the 120 SR has a special place in the trunk of my car in case the opportunity of calm weather presents itself. Honestly, for that reason I don't expect to fly it that much, a shame really. So if you are looking for a single blade indoor heli where indoor means your house then you may be better off with the mSR (I slightly regret not having picked it up instead, but have tuned my mCX2 for increased fun so I'm sort of ok indoors for now).
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
Blade 120SR Nice to Know INFO Jan 15, 2011
By Timothy
This is buy far the best Heli I have flown compared to the Blade CX2/CX3. Only set back is the swash-plate I tried to adjust the servo connections on the swash-plate and it broke almost effortlessly. So naturally I started looking for a metal hop up.
My experience with the one provide from micro-heli in my opinion needs to be researched better. I ordered one and the swash-plate guide came right out. So I tried the hop up metal or aluminum swash plate from the Blade CX2 and the heli performs flawlessly!!! Blade should include this with the kit along with a crash kit. That would make this BNF or RTF a 5 star.
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