Lightly Organized Chaos

I’ve been enchanted by flying animals and aircraft my entire life. I’ve always wanted to get into radio control aircraft, but the time, complexity, and cost of radio control aircraft kept me away. These days modern high-density lithium-poltmer (lipo) batteries and foam aircraft have addressed the issues that kept me out of the hobby.

For my last birthday, Kim gave me a Hobbyzone SuperCub. A really great beginner platform for learning to fly radio control airplanes. Not only is it easy to fly, but it’s cheap to repair. I’ve managed to crash mine a couple of times now, breaking a fuselage and wing; $35 later I was back in the air. I now have a couple of safe landings behind me, and I’m looking forward to the next calm day for another flight.

With the Blade MCX buzzing around the house Kim mentioned that she had felt deprived one christmas long ago. It seems that her brothers got radio control trucks and she didn’t. I tried to make it up to her by giving her a r/c car for Christmas. Based on lots of information on the Internet, I chose a Traxxas Stampede for her. The Stampede came ready to run (just add batteries and charger), and has a reputation as a rugged and fun backyard basher. The monster truck format has the advantage of running well on the sometimes unkempt lawn in the backyard or local schoolyard; as well as being somewhat more rugged.

Since I didn’t want her to have no one to race, I picked up a Team Associated RC10B4 buggy for myself. As a kid I had wanted a cool, radio control, off-road buggy, but never got around to spending paper route money to actually buy one. At the time the Team Associated RC10 was the winningest rig around. Since Kim’s gift was fulfilling a childhood regret, I chose to fulfill my own and picked up the modern day iteration of the RC10. The buggy format runs faster than a monster truck all other things being equal, especially running on the street in front of the house or a dirt track.

The first time we used our cars, Kim ran over my buggy (and flipped it) — twice. Twice! She enjoyed that a little too much. We’ve had a few chances to run the cars since then, and have had loads of fun. I’ve replaced the right side control arm and shock cap after clipping a curb going almost 20mph. Lately I’ve started improving my car’s setup — Kim has got to catch me to flip me!

While stuck in Kim’s basement immediately following my first surgery, I was looking for something to keep me entertained (besides CNN and the election). After some Internet research I settled on an E-Flite Blade MCX radio control helicopter. I’ll go over the in’s and out’s of this little heli and provide a small review in a moment, but first a little background.

I’ve always been interested in things that fly (birds, kites, planes, etc.), and in fact I initially declared an aerospace engineering major in college. Over the last couple of years small, cheap r/c helicopters have become available in discount stores and malls worldwide. I’ve owned several of these: Havoc Helis, Mosquitos, and others. While these toys have been amusing, but they’ve always disappointed by being difficult and terribly imprecise to control. Enter the Blade MCX.

The helicopter is pretty small; just 8 inches long and weighing in at just about 1 ounce. The small size and lightweight makes the MCX perfect for flying around the basement. I’ve had a good time landing on just about any surface that’s large enough to get the landing skids on (about 4″x4″). The heli is super stable, and hovers well; control is precise and intuitive. Because of the heli’s small size (and small, lightweight LiPo battery) flight times are limited to 8-10 minutes. While that sounds like a short amount of time charging only takes about 15 minutes, and I purchased a total of 3 batteries which seems to be the right number for my attention span.

The experience of flying the MCX had led to a “false” sense of confidence. Several crashes have resulted from attempts to fly under our folding tables and up and down the staircases. After dozens and dozens of crashes the MCX was still in excellent shape — even after being in the hands of 4 different novice pilots. But I did eventually break the helicopter inner shaft. Which is a good segue to talk about the difference between the MCX and the other toys I’ve had. The Blade MCX differs from the earlier toy helicopters I tried in that it’s a hobby-grade radio control device. E-Flite has been making radio control aircraft for several years, and they support their products with a complete line of replacement parts and an network of hobby shops that carry their products. The availability of (inexpensive) replacement parts and repair advice elevates the Blade MCX over cheaper toy helicopters. The total repair costs for my MCX was just $6 — it’s now good as new. With only minor maintenance I can keep the Blade MCX in the air for years to come.

After 4 months of zipping around the room with the MCX, I’m still infatuated with flying it around the house. Unfortunately, the MCX is also the perfect radio control gateway drug. Now that I’m off the couch, the house has since accumulated several more radio control vehicles all because of this great little aircraft. Next time, radio control cars become part of the family.