Boca Bearings is the proud owner of a shiny new Blade 180 CFX! We've been selling quite a few of the bearing kits for this thing, so we figured we'd get one to try out. For science!

We're gonna test fly it, put some some new bearings in it, fly it some more, shoot a few videos, etc. We'll probably do some Microheli upgrades at some point. Our only experience with flying helicopters so far has been the 130X, so that is our point of comparison.

First Impression

Right out of the box it looks like a really nice machine. It is far more robust than the 130X. In terms of length and width it is only slightly larger, but everything on it is beefier and feels way more solid. It's heavier, and I love the stock carbon fiber frame.

A few things I noticed right off the bat:

It has radial servos throughout, 4 in total. It doesn't use those linear servos like on the 130 that are prone to failure. You can also see the 5800kv brushless motor that is shorter and fatter than the 130x motor.

This new box tail design looks much more sturdy. Hopefully it is easy to work on.

Plastic swash just like on the 130, but it looks plenty strong enough. I'll upgrade to the aluminum one at some point.

180 CFX battery (below) compare to 130x battery (above)

3-cell 450mah battery

I've gone ahead and set up my DX6i for it. Now all that's left is to bind it and fly it......