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Blade CX
Introduction
Within a reasonable driving distance from my house, there are four well-equipped hobby shops. When I started this review
some time ago, each of them had ordered E-flite’s Blade CX helicopters and not one of them had one still in stock. Sold
out in no time! Doesn’t that tell you something? Fortunately, the initial rush to be a Blade CX owner has abated -- or at
least Horizon is keeping up with stock quantities! -- and there will likely be one waiting for you at your LHS.
As far as I am concerned, the Blade CX Coaxial Helicopter is a tiny miracle. I have 70 year old reflexes, only average skills
when it comes to piloting fixed wing RC aircraft, an unwillingness to put up with the expense and complexity of the RC
helicopters that have been on the market for the last several years, and, being a Mac user, no possibility of practicing with
a flight simulator. Some time ago, when the helicopter bug bit me, I asked the famous Red, proprietor of Red’s Hangar One
Hobbies in Rohnert Park, CA, (we have a Sherlock Holmes-Dr.Watson relationship) when there was going to be a
helicopter suitable for my modest capacities. His answer was “next week.”
When I arrived the following week, there was an elegant, bright yellow copter sitting on top of its cardboard case on a
display counter. Red walked over, transmitter in hand, connected the battery and proceeded to fly the little Blade up and

down the aisles of his crowded shop. Then he placed the Blade in a hover, stepped back, placed the transmitter on the
floor, and walked away, leaving the copter to hover unassisted. Finally, after a few pirouettes, he landed the little craft on
top of its cardboard box. You think I exaggerate? Take a look at the attached video in which Red recreates his wordless
sales talk. No wonder dealers can’t keep these in stock!
Not only is this beast exactly what I had been longing for, the price and quality are amazing. For less than $200, you get a
"take it out of the box, charge the battery, and fly" helicopter. Nothing to build. No endless adjusting and balancing. Nothing
to buy except for 8 AA batteries for the transmitter. And it is rugged.

Requires:
8 AA batteries for the transmitter
Nothing else.
No really.
Nothing.

Contents:
The Blade CX cuddled in Styrofoam trays inside an attractive cardboard box. The well designed box with a plastic handle
serves as a carrying case for the copter, transmitter, and accessories, including, if you acquire them, space for spare parts.
Even King Kong posing as a postman couldn’t damage the contents.
A completely assembled, ready to hover right out of the box helicopter,
a four channel FM transmitter,
a 2-cell lipo flight battery,
a cell balancing lipo charger,
a packet with a screwdriver (the only tool you will need),
hook and loop tape for the battery,
some bits of double sided mounting tape,
and a few plastic ties.
There is also a 36 page instruction manual which every manufacturer should strive to emulate. It is the most clearly
written, complete, and error free manual I have ever seen. Congratulations to the copywriter! Finally, there is a DVD
(which won’t play on a Mac – one of my very few complaints) which shows what to expect of the CX.

Assembly:
Assembly? There isn’t any. Of course you've already read the entire manual before beginning "assembly". In case you
haven't, while your battery is charging, you should look at page 11 of the instructions and make sure your Blade balances
as it should. Then if you are unfamiliar with helicopters, you can start at page 21 and read how the controls work and how
to trim the copter. Then, with a charged battery installed, go to page 12 and test the controls as explained there. OK. Now
you are good to go.

Optionals:
An optional training gear (EFLH1205) is available. I was willing to get one, but Red suggested I could get along without it,
so I took his advice.
There is an optional AC transformer for the battery charger(ELFC4000). This will save you from running out to connect to
your car or from having to lug a compact 12 volt battery around. I think it is a worthwhile investment.
I recommend having a few spare parts on hand:
lower main blade set (EFLH1220),
upper main blade set (EFLH1221),
an inner shaft with hub and main gear set (EFLH1212)
These parts will take care of the most likely victims of training accidents.

Flying:
Is this Helicopter for Beginners?
The Blade CX is designed to be extra user friendly and extra stable. Want to lift off and fly around your living room? This is
the machine for you (but learn in a larger space, first).
Is your Blade CX doing something weird? Let go of the sticks and it will fly itself back to stability. That’s what a beginner
wants, what a beginner needs, and what a beginner gets.
The trade off, of course, is that loops, inverted flight, and other aerobatics must await your next helicopter.

From the eyes of the hobby shop owner:

Red indicates, "To a seasoned helicopter pilot, the Blade CX will feel quite abnormal because it is so positively stable.
Instead of continually catching it as it veers away from stability, as is the case with conventional helicopters, you need to
push it where you want it to go with deliberate control inputs and it then goes right along willingly. It is by far the easiest
copter I have ever flown and is the first I would recommend without reservation to a complete beginner."
From the photos and video, you can see what an experienced pilot can do with the CX, so. how did yours truly, old fumble
fingers, do?
Well, for a guy like me there is a learning curve involved. The fact that from the beginning I was trying to learn to fly
indoors in a cramped space with a low ceiling didn’t help matters. It took two flights a day for over a week before I had
hovering and basic movements down pat. During that time I did chip and replace a couple of blades, but that’s all. On the
whole the CX survived my “learning events” unblemished. I bet this stage will take most new owners considerably less time
than it took me, and now I am at the point where the CX is my little friend.
Early in the morning when the air is still calm, I take out my heli and fly it as I stroll up my long driveway to go fetch the
morning paper, tuck the paper under my belt, and fly the copter back down the drive, through my garage, and park it on
my workbench. And what a joy it has been to be able to fly something indoors on stormy days. Once you get the hang of
it, this little beast can be flown with great precision.

Advice for First TIme Helicopter Flyers
First of all, E-flite recommends that you make your first flights indoors in space at least 20 by 20 feet and with a high
ceiling. I didn’t have a space like that available, and the lack of one slowed my learning curve drastically. In your house in a
typcial room, the rotor wash from those contrarotating blades will bounce off the walls and off furniture and buffet your
helicopter all over the place.
The Blade CX is very sensitive to even the slightest breeze. That’s why you don’t want to fly outdoors at first. Even
indoors, drafts from open windows, a heating duct, or even your dog scratching fleas will destabilize the copter. In the
beginning, stick to still air.
Just as soon as possible, get your helicopter up to the level of your belt. Below this altitude, the helicopter is bounced
around by the wash from its rotors; above it, things smooth out.
Try not to over control. This copter pretty much wants to stay in a stable hovering position. Once it is trimmed, if you want
it to do something else, you have to make it do what you want.
If the helicopter is doing something you don’t want – moving to the left, for example, so you have to keep holding the right
hand stick to the right – set it down and “click” in some left trim, then take her up again. Trim only one control at a time.
Repeat until your helicopter holds a hover.
Many people find that if they fly for about a minute, set down, unplug and replug the battery, and then take off, the
helicopter is in much better trim. This apparently resets the electronics in the little black box to compensate for the
helicopter’s warmed up condition.
At this point, most of you will be flying just fine, but some of you, like me, will find the going a little slow. What to do? Do
what Olympic atheletes do. Visualize. No kidding. I know about this stuff and it works. Sit in a comfortable chair with your
transmitter in your hands. Close your eyes. Move the left stick (throttle) forward. “See” the helicopter rise in the screen of
your imagination. Pull the stick back. “Watch” the helicopter settle. Repeat a few times. Now let the helicopter rise and try
another control. Watch the helicopter move. Try the controls one by one, all in your mind’s eye, and then try using them in
combination, as for instance, left stick forward to rise plus right stick forward to move forward, plus left stick to the right to
point the nose to the right, and so forth. It works at the Olympics, and it’s going to work for you.
Finally, to seek advice, help, or other information about flying, hopping up, repairs, and other modifications, or just to see
what other CX flyers are up to, log on to the to the Multi Rotor Helis discussion thread at RCGroups.Com. There are literally
hundreds of messages about this one helicopter.
Credit: rcgroups.com
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums
/showthread.php?t=508079
Wahrftig ( Albert Wahrhaftig )
Nice built heli, relatively easy to fly, Great beginner heli, some nice upgradable parts. not enough parts are always available
in UK from suppliers, parts cheap, Good quality over all. Just a bit large for a normal house to fly regularly in, unless its a
dead still day its not much good outside. if space indoors is tight go for a smaller heli such as the brilliant MCX, but dont be
put off lots of positves here! just wish id gone for something bigger to get outside more!
Jonathan73 --- 12:25 Saturday, 4 April 2009
Comment form closed due to spams. Please use the forum to post comments instead.
The E-Flite Blade CX ships in a convenient carrying case type box. This allows you to pack up the Blade and travel with it
practically anywhere. It even has a handle at the top!
Included in the box is the Blade CX fully assembled, a 4 channel transmitter, a cell balancing charger, lipo battery, small
screwdriver tie straps, double sided sticky tape and an instructional video CD.
After the quick topping off of the li-po pack the Blade CX was ready for its first test flights. The instructions provided go
over the operation and any necessary trimming adjustments in detail. In general though you can adjust the blade tracking

and mix trimming on the Blade CX if it is necessary. On my test unit it did not require any trimming and flew out of the box.
I would note that if you are a fully fledged heli beginner you might take a look at the optional training gear set before your
first flight. These help to increase the stability of the model and give some extra cushion on landings. Installation of the
training gear is described in detail in the manual. I used this sort of setup when I first learned glow helis and they were a
tremendous aid so if you are a first timer I recommend grabbing these and installing them.
The Blade CX uses its two main rotors to control all aspects of flight. There is no tail rotor nor is it necessary as the
counter rotating blades cancel out rotational torque. The blades however can control the yaw axis by providing more or
less power (speed) to one rotor blade thus increasing torque in one direction. The dual blade setup also provides a
gyroscopic effect for stability that is just about rock solid.
Indoors the Blade CX proved to be very easy to fly and control. Without any wind the heli practically locks in anywhere you
put it. You can perform circles, figure 8's, practice nose in and nose out hovering. To maintain flight in any direction you do
need to apply pressure to the cyclic (right stick) in the direction you want to go. When you release and go back to center I
discovered the heli went back into a stable hover which was nice.
The helicopter is not super fast in any direction even when maximum cyclic is applied. My guess is that this is due in large
part to the gyroscopic effect which provides stability that is always trying to keep the heli in a stable hover. Pirouettes are
possible with the Blade CX. Doing them to the right I was able to do about one revolution every 1.5 to 2 seconds. Doing
them to the left I could get a snappier speed which seemed about twice as fast.
I was able to land the Blade CX on my kitchen counter, tables, and even a small pedestal. Believe it or not I even landed on
my wifes hand and took it off from her hand. I could easily navigate it up the stairs and down the halls and land it on my air
hockey "helipad" (see video clip). This thing is a lot of fun! I am still having a blast flying it now after a couple weeks. I fire it
up at least once a day.
The next test I wanted to do was the crash test. In order to do this I had to slam the Blade CX into the wall (yeah..I
crashed it on purpose. and if you believe that I have this bridge to sell you. ). Ok..after the "incident" I picked up the Blade
CX to do a damage report. It survived fairly well but the main shaft plastic assembly broke at the very top and the flybar
bent. Well, I was about to learn how to repair the CX!
Using the supplied screwdriver I loosened up the collar at the bottom of the heli that retains the main shaft. The shaft slides
out and I simply slid the new one in and reassembled and replaced the broken head pieces. All the pieces I needed were in
the main gear replacement package pictured above in this review. Total repair time was 15 minutes and I was back in
action (and a little less reckless on my next few flights!). Difficulty rating for the repair on a scale from one (easy) to five
(hard) was a one.
I have been seeing flight times in the 10 to 15 minute range with the out of the box stock setup.
The Blade CX can handle mild amounts of wind. When a breeze comes along it will push it around a bit and the heli will drift.
You can compensate and fly through the mild winds of less than 3-4mph or so but I probably wouldn't push it to much
beyond that. If you do you then you will likely find you can't get enough speed to fight the wind and it will drift off along
with the wind.
With more space outdoors I was able to fool around a bit more. I took the heli up pretty high and brought it back down. I
was able to push the maximum speed in all directions without running out of room as I would indoors. I could also safely
do super fast pirouettes.
The Blade CX is not designed to do aerobatics of any kind really nor can it be forced to do them. That is not the intended
purpose of this heli. The most advanced "maneuver" it is capable of is a fast pirouette. Aside from that you should not
expect this heli to perform loops or rolls as it is not capable of such aerobatics.
The Blade CX RTF Coaxial Heli is a lot of fun in a very inexpensive package. This product does exactly what it says it will do
and flew right out of the box for me. I have logged a couple of hours on the Blade CX with only three crashes now. Only
one resulted in a repair job which proved to be a quick and easy fix.
If you have been looking for something that you can fly outdoors on a calm day, in your own living room, family room or
kitchen the E-Flite Blade CX certainly fits the bill. It was always a dream of mine for 30 years to be able to fly something
"stable" in my own house and this product has certainly fulfilled that desire! I'm looking forward to many more flights on
the Blade CX and would recommend it to anyone, both beginner or expert, looking for a super stable indoor/outdoor RTF
electric heli.

Blade CX4 Parts, Upgrades and Accessories
Be sure to bookmark this page for easy access to all the replacement parts for the Blade CX4. With each release of the
Blade CX line of R/C Helicopter, they get more and more crash resistant. However, if you have a really bad crash or simply
want an extra LiPo battery, below are all the Blade CX4 parts currently available. As Blade CX4 upgrades become available,
we will list them here. Blade CX4 parts are inexpensive and very easy to install.
Blade CX4 parts below that are not clickable are currently out of stock.

Blade CX3 Tips, Settings, & Help

Many Of These Tips Work With The CX2 As Well
The Blade CX3 Remains To Be One Of My Favorite Coaxial RC Helicopters
This Blade CX3 tips and help page covers the following 12 topics:
1. Programming & Setup Values For The CX3 (DX6i example)
2. Bind-n-Fly Procedure
3. Toilet Bowl Effect (TBE)
4. Tail Drift
5. Tail Twitch
6. Spinning/Yawing Tail
7. Dealing With A Scale Fuselage
8. Fitting The Battery
9. Understanding & Care of RC LiPo Batteries
10. Navigation LED Lights Upgrade
11. Additional Recommendations & Tips
As I mentioned on my Blade CX3 Review page. I have a Spektrum DX6i that came with the Blade 400 and a
DX7 so I naturally purchased the CX3 Bind-n-Fly version.
The instructions that came with the CX3 did a good job of explaining the basic bind procedure, but unfortunately
do not walk you through the correct settings.
Once again, I am using a DX6i radio, but if you have any of the computerized DSM2 Spectrum or JR radios, the
procedure will be more or less the same; the setup values will be identical.

Blade CX3 Tips #1 - PROGRAMING AND SETUP
Turn on your radio on and click the scroll knob to enter the “Adjust List” menu screen. Scroll down to
“Model Select” (#1 on the DX6i) and click the scroll knob. Scroll through your list until you come up
with an empty or blank memory location (if this is a new radio, all memory locations should be empty). Once
selected, the radio indicates it’s “ing” all programmable fields on this new model (which of
course now has to be programmed).
Scroll down to “Setup List” (#9 on the DX6i) and select it by clicking the scroll knob. You should now
be in the Setup List menu.
Scroll down to Model Type (#1 on the DX6i) and click on it. Select Heli and click again. The radio has just configured
this new memory location with heli software in order for you to program the necessary helicopter specific fields.
Now (while still in the Setup List) scroll down to “Model Name” (#2 on the DX6i) and click on it. The
screen should indicate the Model Number and if you scroll down, a black high-lit area under the model number will
appear, click on it. Now by scrolling and clicking, enter the name of your model – in this case CX3 or
something similar. Your new memory location now has the model type and name programmed; now it is time to
program the various fields.
Remaining in the Setup List menu, scroll down to “Reverse” (#4 on the DX6i) and as per the
instructions that came with the Blade CX3, set the Aileron, Elevator, and Rudder all to reverse, the rest of the
channels remain at normal.
Still in the Setup List, scroll down to “Swash Type” (#5 on the DX6i) and select 90 degrees. This one
caused me some issues as the swash looks like it is set up in a 120 degree CCPM orientation, which of course it
isn’t. After I realized the gyroscopic precession that is acting at approximately 30 degrees, it made total
sense. Special Note. If you have a DX7 radio, use the 90 degree - one servo - no swash mix, swash type.
The only other field you may want to program while still in the Setup List menu is the timer (#8 on the DX6i). It is
personal preference and determined on how and where you fly your CX3 as to what timer values you set. You
should be able to get at least 8 minutes out of a fully charged 800 mAh battery unless you are flying it very
aggressively. You may want to start at 7 minutes and go from there. I do recommend you set up the timer in
“Count Down” mode and use it every flight. There is little warning on the CX3 when the batteries are
getting low, so it is nice to have a timer telling you when to land.
Now that the necessary “Setup List” menus have all been programmed, scroll down to “Adjust
List” (#13 on the DX6i) and click back into the “Adjust List” menu. The settings I have come up
with were obtained over the course of around 50 flights on the CX3. I feel they offer the best combination of both
control and performance. You may want to adjust or modify them, but they should give you good starting points.
There are a few people who have been experiencing a constant pirouette after binding their CX3's to the DX6i.
This is not an issue with how you bound it, programmed it, or my settings. Horizon Hobby has unofficially
recognized that there are some 3 in 1 units that once bound to the DX6i will not power the lower rotor. The only
fix is a new 3 in 1.

Adjust List Settings
DUAL & EXPONENTIAL RATES SETTINGS
Switch position 0:

-Aileron 100% - Expo +15%
-Elevator 100% - Expo +15%
-Rudder 100% - Expo 20% (gives a pirouette rate of approximately 3 pirouettes per second)
These “position 0” settings will give full cyclic control for more aggressive flight, or when outside
and you need maximum cyclic to overcome any small breeze.
Switch Position 1:
-Aileron 75% - Expo +10%
-Elevator 75% - Expo +10%
-Rudder 50% - Expo 20% (give a pirouette rate of about 1 per second)
These position 1 settings will give a very controllable and docile bird while flying indoors. If this is your first time
flying the CX3 with or without training gear, I would recommend using these values.
TRAVEL ADJUSTMENT SETTINGS
All channels set to 100%
SUB TRIM SETTINGS
Start out with all set at 0. The only two channels you should need to adjust are Elevator and Aileron to
compensate for any unwanted cyclic drift. You may have to use rudder sub trim, but it is best to use the Main
Motor Proportional Trimmer Pot on the 3-in-1 unit - more on this topic under Tail Drift.
Use these settings if you want remotely selectable gyro gain by plugging the yellow remote-gain wire from the
3-in-1 unit into the receiver’s “Gear” channel. -SW = Gyro
-Switch Position 0 - 35%
-Switch Position 1 - 45%
I discuss these gain settings in more detail under Tail Twitch.
FIVE POINT THROTTLE CURVE
With the CX3, I only programed 2 throttle curves. One for normal flight mode and one for throttle hold. You may
wish to program a stunt curve, but on a simple fixed pitch coaxial, I didn’t see any point to it. HOWEVER
; if you have the remote LED kit you will need to set a pitch curve - WHY? I have the procedure on my CX3 LED
tips page .
I do have a throttle hold programmed so the heli can be made safe by selecting throttle hold so the rotors
won’t spool up if the throttle stick is bumped accidentally.
I also like butter smooth throttle response in the mid stick hover range for better hovering & lift control. This is
hard to achieve on an electric micro coaxial helicopter with a basic linear throttle curve; once again proving that
computerized radios with programmable throttle and pitch curve settings can be just as beneficial with a simple
micro coaxial heli.
CX3/2 Throttle Curve
Here is the exact throttle curve I am using on both the DX6i & DX7 to give a mid stick hover and very smooth
power output for increased hover control. Note on the DX7 I have turned on exponential to smooth the curve
out even further.
-Low Stick = 0%
-Stick Position 2 = 60%
-Stick Position 3 = 65% (mid stick hover)
-Stick Position 4 = 75%
-High Stick = 100%
Not everyone will like this throttle curve I realize, but if you want increased hover control and a smooth power
band in the mid stick range - give it a try. For throttle hold, all stick positions are set to 0%.
PITCH CURVE & REMAINING FIELDS
-Pitch Curve. Nothing to set unless you have the remote LED kit .
-Swash Mix. Inhibited with 90 degree swash selection
-Mix 1 & 2. Inhibited
-Revolution Mixing. Inhibited
Quite the process right? Too-bad it wasn’t in the manual; it would have made my life and yours a little
easier I am thinking.

Blade CX3 Tips #2 - BINDING THE DX6i
Now that all the fields have been programmed, it is time to bind this baby. When you bind a DSM2 receiver to a
DSM2 radio, all the trim and stick positions are recorded in the receiver for fail safe. This means, if you ever
loose radio signal while flying, the receiver sets all channel outputs to the positions that it saw during the
binding process.

For safety reasons, you always want your receiver to set throttle to 0% as it binds and stores the fail safe
settings. Make sure when you’re binding your bird, you have the throttle stick in the low or off position
and all other sticks at neutral.
All set? Turn your radio off and plug the bind plug that came with your CX3 into the BATT input on the AR6100e
receiver. Power up the receiver by plugging the Li-Po battery pack in. The orange LED in the receiver should be
blinking rapidly right now.
Now, hold the trainer switch on (pulled forward) on your radio and then turn on the radio. The radio’s
LCD display will indicate it is in binding mode and will be beeping. Keep holding the trainer/bind switch on and
within a few seconds, the orange LED on the receiver will stop flashing and stay on solid – your bird is
now bound and setup (don’t forget to remove the bind plug).

Blade CX3 Tips #4 - TAIL DRIFT
Before I start on this, it may help you understand how a heading lock gyro works and its limitations. If you
don’t know what or how a heading hold/lock lock gyro is, you might want to click on that topic to read
more about it.
Heading lock gyros are designed to help keep the nose of the helicopter from drifting due to external forces
acting upon the heli such as a cross wind, violent torque changes, or the weathervane effect during fast
backward or sideways flight.
Now, a small micro coaxial won’t fly in any kind of wind so we can take wind out of the equation. It will
fly backward and sideways however with enough speed to cause it to weathervane and point the nose in
direction of travel. With the large surface area of the tail boom on the MD520N fuselage, this becomes even
more important.
I wouldn’t say the heading lock gyro in the 3-in-1 unit on the Blade CX3 is great, but it works fine for
what’s required on a micro coaxial. For instance, if you hover the CX3 in front of you and reach out and
give the tail a light push to the side, the gyro is not going to correct and get the heli pointing back to the exact
same heading it was pointed in before you gave it a push. You will see it move slightly back towards its original
heading however, and this is the difference between doing this experiment on the CX3 compared to the mCX or
CX2.
This limited heading hold is certainly enough to keep the weathervane effect from occurring and I can fly my
CX3 very quickly sideways or backward without any weathervane effect – it works well for this and that
is all that is required on a micro coaxial.
Another good test of the heading hold ability on the Blade CX3 is to perform a “pogo stick”
maneuver. This is where you increase the throttle and decrease it rapidly over and over so the helicopter is
going up and down mimicking a pogo stick. With a yaw rate gyro in a mCX say, the heil will not maintain a
heading that well as the changing torque loads are violent and drift is unavoidable so constant corrections during
the pogo are required. The Blade CX3 with its heading hold gyro on the other hand can do very nice pogos
without loosing the heading – pretty impressive for such an inexpensive helicopter.
So what causes tail drift and is there a cure?
Tail drift is caused by the vary nature of how a piezoelectric ceramic gyro crystal works (the type of gyro
technology that is used in almost every RC helicopter gyro on the market). I won't get into the physics of it, but
the short story is as the crystal and the circuit board in the gyro heat up or cool down, very tiny amounts of
changing stress loads are placed on the crystal causing it to deflect the slightest amount. This is what causes
the drift, the gyro sensor is no longer calibrated in a neutral position.
Very good and expensive gyros that cost more than the entire Blade CX3 heli have sophisticated circuitry
and/or software algorithms to compensate for temperature drift issues. That of course is not the case with an
inexpensive micro coaxial, nor should it be expected in this level of helicopter with a low cost gyro crammed into
a micro sized 3 in 1 control unit that gets pretty warm during a flight.
Fortunately, the Blade CX3 can be adjusted so tail drift issues are very acceptable and will only require a few
clicks of tail rotor trim throughout the flight to compensate - yep, you have just become the sophisticated
circuitry and software used in expensive gyros.
The first thing to remember is that the Blade CX3 uses a heading hold/lock gyro. This very important to
understand. Every time you plug in the battery and the gyro initializes, the gyro will take what ever tail rotor
stick and trim position reading and lock it as the neutral reference point. Now as the 3 in 1 circuit board heats up
during the flight, a little drift will start happening (most likely to the right). Now you give a little left trim to
compensate and the bird is good for the rest of the flight.
Here is the important point to remember. MAKE SURE YOU RESET YOUR TRIM BACK TO NEUTRAL BEFORE THE
NEXT FLIGHT. If you don't, the heading lock gyro will see your left trim as the neutral position when you power
up the CX3 and once again you give a couple more clicks to the left during the flight to compensate for the right
drift. In a few flights if you never center your tail trim, you will have your trim all the way to the left with no
more adjustment range possible. If you are using a computerized radio, ensure subtrim is also zeroed out.
I actually give a click or two of right trim before I power up the Blade CX3. When first powered up, the gyro will
see this as the center position. As the gryo warms during the flight and the resultant right drift comes into play
- I now have a good deal of left trim range, even though I will only need a few clicks, I like to have my trims

more or less centered (just a habit).
The next important item to adjust is of course the mixing pot on the 3 in 1 unit. Because the CX3 uses a
heading lock gyro, the mixing adjustment works differently than on a CX2 or mCX. The gryo is actually very
capable of compensating for out of adjustment mixing, but a mixing board and gyro fighting against each other
is not what you want.
First thing to do - disregard what the instructions say about the mixing adjustment! What worked on the CX &
CX2, doesn't work well on the Blade CX3. Thanks to the heading lock gyro, setting up the mixing on the CX3 is
much easier. Just center the mixing pot and perform some pirouettes. The idea is to get the mixing adjustment
so the Blade CX3 will pirouette left and right at the same rate.
Before I set the trimmer pot correctly, my Blade CX3 would turn faster to the right than to the left (about three
and a half pirouettes per second to the right and only about 2 per second to the left). Now I am getting around
3 per second both left and right.
These settings made such a huge improvement in my Blade CX3. I can hover for well over a minute with very
little if any drift and I have consistent pirouette rates in both directions.

Blade CX3 Tips #5 - TAIL TWITCH
There are three things that cause tail twitch on the CX3 or any RC heli for that matter.

Too much vibration that the gyro miss-interprets as yaw movement
Too much gyro gain (gyro set too sensitive)
Inherent slow response from electric motors correcting for fast gyro commands
The first two are easy to fix and cured 75% of the tail twitch issues on my Blade CX3, the last one is an
inherent problem with fast gyro / slow electric motor combinations. E-flite has published fixes on their web site
to deal with this twitch issue. These fixes work for the most part, but there is more to it than just turning down
the gain and adding some double sided foam tape to the front landing struts to isolate fuselage vibration.
I actually don’t recommend using double sided foam tape to isolate fuselage vibrations from the frame
since it may stick the fuselage to the strut and it is easy to crack the fuse if you have to remove it. Instead - I
used some foam weather stripping cut into two very small cubes; this works much better and is way more
secure.
Remove the factory blue foam from the front struts so the new foam can stick and you will have a very secure
fuselage with next to no vibration transmission to the gyro. It is easy to take the fuse off since is it is not stuck
to this foam now.
That cured maybe 10% of my tail twitch. To be honest, this modification had little effect on my twitch reduction,
but it does hold the fuselage much better.
So, I still noticed and felt a strong vibration. I thought I had a bent lower or upper main rotor shaft because I
could see the upper rotor head wobble ever so slightly. I measured both shafts for run-out with a dial indicator
– perfect! I traced the problem to the plastic upper bearing support (part # EFLH1217).
This bearing support was not running true and as a result, the upper shaft was wobbling in relation to the lower
shaft causing significant vibration. This might have been a “one of” or perhaps is a common
problem – I honestly don’t know.
As you can see in the photo to the right, I machined my own bearing holder and it cured the vibration –
UREKA! You of course don’t have to machine your own bearing holder. E-flite has an upgraded aluminum
bearing holder (part # EFLH1244).
I highly recommend this upgrade for the CX3, and is only one of two aluminum upgrades I suggest - more on
that CX3 tips topic under the Additional Recommendations section of this page.
Too much gain is easy to fix, turn down the gain. If you are binding your Blade CX3 to a good programmable
computerized radio, definitely use the remote gain feature. The settings of 35% and 45% I gave in the
programming section give the best combination of tail holding and twitch elimination on my CX3.
In the picture to the right, you can see how the yellow gain wire from the 3-in-1 unit is plugged into the 6100e
receiver's "GEAR" channel. Now you can easily program your gain and toggle it between a higher and lower
setting.
The 35% setting gives a more docile rate like feeling to your tail. It won’t stop the tail on a dime, but it
is very nice for scale type flying where a robotic tail lock looks unnatural. Remember also, the higher the gain
value, the slower your pirouette rate will be; so for super fast pirouettes, stick with 35% or even a little less.
45% gives more of that “robotic” tail lock feel and a slightly slower pirouette rate. Any more gain,
will likely be too much for the slow response of speed controlled main rotors. This brings us to inherent tail
twitch.
Slow Motor Response
After isolating / eliminating vibrations and turning down your gain, you may still notice the occasional twitch.
This one almost seems like a glitch or radio interference by the intermittent nature in which it occurs. If you

have ever flown a rotten electric tail rotor RC heli with a high gain rate it is the exact same symptom just not
nearly as severe on the CX3.
My little mCX does this too, but it doesn’t seem as pronounced. In my opinion. I think the heading lock
gyro coupled with the slow reacting main rotors is making this twitch more noticeable than if a simple yaw rate
gyro was used.
Let’s say the gyro sees a yaw to the right, unlike the rate gyro that just dampens this movement, the
heading lock gyro dampens it and then sends a command to yaw the tail back to the original heading. The rotors
of course can’t speed up and slow down instantaneously to correct the heading and the gyro sends even
more correction, now once the rotors finally do speed up and slow down enough to make the correction it is over
corrected and the gyro makes a sudden and pronounced counter correction.
If you experience this sudden twitching on your Blade CX3 you will notice that it behaves exactly this way. The
neat thing is the gyro always returns the CX3 to its original heading after this “glitch twitch” as I
call it.
So is a heading lock gyro a bad idea on a micro electric coaxial?
I certainly enjoy flying the Blade CX3 more than my mCX with the improved performance, so in my opinion, the
benefits of a heading lock gyro paired with mediocre responding rotors is worth it. Besides, the exact same
twitch happens on my mCX as I said, and I have seen it on the CX2, it is just not as noticeable.

Blade CX3 Tips #6 - Spinning & Yawing CX3
I have been getting this question a lot - "My CX3 or CX2 keeps spinning - why?"
The first thing you have to determine is what direction the heli is spinning/yawing. The upper rotor is
responsible for stopping a left or counterclockwise yaw. The lower rotor is responsible for stopping a right or
clockwise yaw.
There are two main mechanical reasons these yaws start up - usually after a repair, but not always.
If your CX2 or 3 is spinning to the left (counterclockwise) this means the upper rotor is not turning fast enough.
This is usually accompanied by a reduction in lift or not even being able to get the heli off the ground. Check the
lower gear collar set screws for tightness on the upper rotor shaft. If you hold the gear and try to turn the
upper rotor this is an easy way to make sure the set screws are tight. If you can spin the rotor while holding the
gear - you have a problem. The upper shaft has a flat on it to accept the one set screw, confirm the set screw is
indeed applying pressure to this flat spot and tighten as required. Confirm the shaft is no longer slipping within
the gear.
IF your CX2 or 3 is spinning to right (clockwise) this generally means the lower rotor is not spinning fast
enough. The most likely culprit here is the brass washer between the upper gear (lower shaft gear) and lower
bearing block has been installed upside down. There is raised ring on one side of this washer - it must be facing
up to ride on the bearing race. The other possibility, especially if you have pets is a piece of hair wound around
that location, between the two gears, or between the upper bearing holder and collar. Check the bearing
between the lower shaft and upper rotor head as well.
Electronic faults within the 3 in 1 (4 in 1 on the CX2) or a motor fault could also cause never ending spinning,
but in most cases the problem can be traced to one of the mechanical issues listed above.

Blade CX3 Tips #7 - THE MD520N FUSELAGE
The very best feature on the Blade CX3 is of course the highly detailed MD520N fuselage. This thing just looks
so great when you see it flying, you can’t help get a silly grin on your face – at least if you are
into scale helis and like the MD520N as much as I do.
Just like any scale RC helicopter, the CX3’s MD520N fuselage hides all the mechanical components and
has to be removed if you need to perform any work on the heli (other than rotor repairs of course). The great
thing about the Blade CX3 is it has one of the easiest to remove scale fuselages going. 10 screws and 2 minutes
is all it takes – this is such a nice feature compared to so many other complicated scale fuse removal
procedures.
CX3 Fuselage removal procedure. 6 easy steps
1. Remove all 4 screws that hold the main rotor blades to the upper and lower rotor heads.
2. Remove all 4 rotor blades (being extra careful when removing the swash ball links and flybar ball link off the rotor

balls).
3. Remover the 2 screws that hold the upper rotor head cap and remover the cap.
4. Remove the flybar.
5. Remove the 4 screws that hold the front and rear battery support to the frame and remove the battery

supports/landing struts as one complete unit.
6. Remove the body mount rod, tilt the main frame forward inside the helicopter and move it rearward so the receiver

and 3-in-1 unit have sufficient clearance to remove the entire mainframe assembly out the bottom of the fuselage.
For a full scale fuse, it doesn't get much easier than that.

Blade CX3 Tips #8 - Fitting The Battery
It took me a little time to figure out the best way to insert and remove the battery but I think this way is the
best.
Hold the helicopter upside down by holding onto the frame or motors between your thumb and index finger
through the fuselage door openings. This makes it possible to fit and remove that battery easily without putting
any stress or strain on the fuselage.
Speaking of the battery, more specifically the Velcro that holds it to the rear battery support –
don’t use the entire piece that comes with the kit. This makes battery removal unnecessarily difficult. All
you need is a very small piece stuck to the back of the battery to prevent it from sliding forward.
The piece of Velcro that comes with kit can be cut into 3 equal size segments that will be more than sufficient to
hold the battery in place. The extra pieces can be used on your extra battery packs then.

Blade CX3 Tips #11 - ADDITIONAL RECOMMENDATIONS & TIPS
Just like the CX2, the motors on the Blade CX3 do get pretty hot during a flight, especially if you are really
pushing them. I highly recommend the E-flight Main Motor Heat Sink for the CX2/3 (part # EFLH1208). This
inexpensive heat sink will add life to your motors but but not much extra weight to your CX3 heli.
Stay Away From Aluminum Upgrades.
Other than the bearing holder and the heat sink, don't put one extra penny into aluminum upgrade parts! You
heard me right. I warn of this in my one e-book on the Blade 400 and it is even more important on small micro
coaxials. Aluminum adds weight, and extra weight on a micro electric coaxial means:

Less flight time
The battery will run hotter, potentially shortening its life
The motors run hotter
More weight causes more damage to the heli in a crash
More weight will over flex the blades and will cause blade strikes
More weight decreases the climb out and speed of the heli
More weight means the 3 in 1 will have to work harder and may overheat. The red LED on the 3 in 1 unit is a good
indication that it is being over worked.
It is that simple. Aluminum parts are expensive and although they might be stronger, the additional weight and
loss in performance is not worth it. I am working on an entire page about upgrades for the weaker plastic parts
on both the CX2 and CX3. YES, there is a solution if you keep breaking things or want increased performance.
If this is your first RC helicopter, you should really use a set of training gear. The scale landing struts on the
Blade CX3 are not that wide and it is very easy to tip the helicopter over when first learning how to fly it. You
can build your own which I show in my "How To Build RC Helicopter Training Gear eBook" .
Knowing When To Land
Here is a little trick I use when flying the Blade CX3 while trying to get every last second of flight time out of the
battery pack without falling out of the sky when it dies, or worse damaging the Li-Po battery pack by over
discharging it (which by the way is easy to do and destroys the Li-Po pack).
If you watch the green light on your 3-in-1 unit while you give added throttle, you will be able to detect when
the battery is almost exhausted. The light will turn red when the 3 in 1 unit is being over worked and stressed.
You can see this when the battery is freshly charged as well with a full throttle command, the green light will
turn red - this is normal, but should not be prolonged.
As the battery voltage weakens during the fight, that red light will come on sooner and sooner closer to your
hover position. If you are hovering and notice the green light changing to red with just a small increase in
power, you don't have long to land - probably about 20 seconds or so until the bird falls out of the sky.
You may have noticed in several of the photos on this page, I have small pieces of silicone fuel tubing on all four
corners of my landing skids. These are called skid bumpers and help prevent the helicopter from sliding around
on smooth surfaces such as hardwood or polished concrete. They also protect the landing skids from abrasions
and give a little shock absorption in a less than perfect landing.
I just used some normal silicone fuel tubing - it fit perfectly on the Blade CX3 landing skids. I only recommend
doing this once you have pretty much mastered landing your CX3. These things do grip well, and if you come in
for a landing while moving, especially sideways, they will grip the ground and flip the heli over.
I hope these Blade CX3 tips help you out with your CX3 or any other micro coaxial heli and perhaps give you a
little more insight on this wonderful scale coaxial RC helicopter and what makes it tick.

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