Epoxy your grips correctly OR ELSE

[DebianDog]

Hi
newbie question epoxy blades for a trex 450 or not does this only apply to larger helicopters

Larger ones with wooden blades

[istandalone]

so i should epoxy hurricane 550 woodies? will any two-part epoxy work?

[DebianDog]

so i should epoxy hurricane 550 woodies? will any two-part epoxy work?

Any "strong" 2 part but if they are together they should be glued.

[aucmax]

When I first bought some woodies, for about $20, I thought this was the answer to my newbie crash future. But when I received them, and realized I had to do all of this trimming, glueing, balancing, etc., well, let's say they are now in my local landfill. I then bought CF with little or no balancing needed and without all the fuss. Not to mention they look much better. Why not learn with the best (if you can afford to)? Never learn to play with a cheap guitar. Frustration will be your only friend indeed. Yep, I said it. So everyone can now chime in and tell me how wrong I am.

[DebianDog]

True after you are out of the "newbie crashing often" stage you will want carbon fiber or, at least, fiberglass blades.

[istandalone]

yea, i've got a pair of the rcp cf 500's from readyheli. i got the woodies "just in case" i have a crash over xmas vacation and can't get more.

[Maxman]

Three years ago I had a helicopter blow out a wood blade for the first time ever. I've been flying helis off and on since 77. If you have never experienced such an event then a person has no idea of the destructive force that occurs. I had a popular helicopter (unnamed to protect the guilty) LOL that comes standard with wood blades. I use the wood blades just to test my initial setup in case something disasterous should occur.....never really expecting such an occurance. This was my fourth such helicopter so I was very familar with them. According to my transmiter timer I was less than a minute into my first hover when things went bad. I momentarily glanced at my transmitter to see the position of my for/aft cyclic trim and "BOOM". I looked up and the helicopter was gone. I mean nothing in front of me. Three guys standing behind me yelled something close to, "holly crap, did you see that?" Nope, I didn't. One blade went 132 ft over the pilot center and came down through the left wing of an Avistar plane. What was left of the lower frames and engine was about 60' to my right. Upper frames seperated from the lower frames and the main shaft, swashplate and bearing blocks literally ripped out of the upper frames and went another direction. If a bomb had been attached to the thing it wouldn't have been more effective. As long as I've flown, I honestly had trouble not flinching when I hovered my next helicopter. It was a very unnerving experience. Everyone gets so used to things just going fine but when they go bad, it can really go bad. Luckily my grips had been glued according to the standard and the parts were returned to the manufacturer and eventually they did the correct thing and reluctantly replaced the kit. I have to give them credit for that. Had I not been experienced and had the evidence (which I express mailed to them for their inspection) I think it would have been shrugged off as a newbie just screwing things up. I didn't save my pictures of this but the first blade literally failed around the die cutting line for the covering at approximately the same area that the blade reinforcments cover. All the wood was still in the reinforcements and securely attached to the blade grips when the head was found. I don't know if this was a one time occurance or if others had a similiar event? When the structural integrity of the wood fibers is compromised by the die cutting its just begging for a failure I feel. I think it would be better to just let modelers take an exacto knife and gently score the covering and then glue the parts together. I guess no procedure is without its compromises.

[TurnerSM]

Wow.... It always fascinates me the things that can be learned when you listen to the voice(s) of experience. I am new to heli's (but been in RC for many years) so I am taking advantage of this great site by learning as much as I can before I get my bird airborne. Since it comes with woodies, this topic is of particular interest to me.
The comments on going straight to CF blades in order to avoid a potential bad situation, I feel, have both good and bad points. Good if you avoid the situation of a blade coming off, but bad from the point of the knowledge and experience that you would also loose by not having to balance the blades.
With balance being so critical for the sake of a stable and safe heli, it seems to me that going thru the procedure of balancing the blades is definitely worthwhile, especially if you are not spot on the first time around.
What?? Not spot on? Yes. I've learned a lot by tracking down a problem and fixing it. You really get to know your machine that way and I feel are far better at understanding and fixing it when something is not quite right. That understanding can only then make you a better pilot. I am not saying that all this comes from going straight to CF blades, only using it as an example.
Just my two cents.

[OrcaSea]

Is there a better way to remove the covering then scoring it with an Exacto? It seems to me that even tiny cuts in the wood adjacent to the area of highest stress would be unwise. Maybe heat it, peel it up and trim it?

I have to say this, as well. I have been reading just about every post on Helifreak, Wattflyer and the Ikarus Forum - English and German (via Babelfish) - in preperation for buying and building my heli, and I am surprised at all of the advice on US boards from some people for new heli owners to fly at "the highest headspeeds they can" for stability, etc. I have read a number of post from people complaining of their tail rotor assemblies and rotor heads "exploding" and when it is fleshed out they were running extremely high headspeeds. In the video listed it is clear that the father's heli was running on the ground at an extremely high speed. there are also a lot of people outright guessing at pinion sizes, with all the complications from that, as well.

On the other end of the spectrum, on the European boards I see a lot of advice on keeping helis as light & simple as possible, and thus flying lighter batteries at lower headspeeds, etc. The recommended hover headspeed on my Ikarus Royal is 1,200.

Just an observation, but I think when people are pushing headspeeds well over 2,500 you're asking for trouble. And frankly, I almost think I would rather get hit by woodies than shattered CF...

[forjer]

...and I am surprised at all of the advice on US boards from some people for new heli owners to fly at "the highest headspeeds they can" for stability, etc....Just an observation, but I think when people are pushing headspeeds well over 2,500 you're asking for trouble....
That's that American mindset we've got. Gimme a bigger, badder, more gas guzzling SUV with 22" spinners and a 10,000 Watt sound system with custom chameleon paint to drop the kids off at school with.

That wasn't off topic was it? My bad. Take away my keys.

[Jermo]

That's that American mindset we've got. Gimme a bigger, badder, more gas guzzling SUV with 22" spinners and a 10,000 Watt sound system with custom chameleon paint to drop the kids off at school with.

That wasn't off topic was it? My bad. Take away my keys.


Actually your comment is mis-guided. The idea with higher headspeeds is to achieve a more stable platform to increase the rate of learning. Flying with mushy controls at a low headspeed does nothing to help you learn to fly. In fact it's my opinion many new pilots fail and give up. They never learn to joy of flying.

I started with a high headspeed, no training gear, and minimal physical/in person help (I had some 1-2 times a month for the first few months).

I had folks at our local field thinking I'd been flying for years when I had been flying less than 90 days. As a result of this realization many of the more experienced pilots (who were doing LESS than I was) stepped up and started doing more over the next several weeks/months because they saw that I could do it.

Flying is 90% mental IMHO and 10% logistics. The more you can do to make the model inherently more stable the easier it is to learn. Factors like larger rotor and faster headspeeds are just no brainers if stability is your goal.

I'm willing to bet our intelligent counterparts all over the world agree because fundamentals don't change. Bigger = more stable, Faster Headspeed = more stable (to a point).

IMHO ignorant people push the agenda of learning to fly with tiny cheap choppers. Calculate your Flight Time per Cost (FTC) and facter in your time. I don't know about you but my time is the most valuable asset I have because it's inherently finite. Add to the fact that having fun while you learn is always better than a persistant state of frustration dealing with cheap toys and you ultimately discover the truth some of us found earlier than later.

:hug:

[beefcake]

Good Post,

"I don't know about you but my time is the most valuable asset I have because it's inherently finite."

Makes me wonder why I spend so much of it in front of a PC & playing with models! :)

[JEB123]

Just for the record, from plank experience, the longer an epoxiy takes to dry, the stronger it will be. I.E. a 30 minute epoxy is much better than a 5 minute, a 24Hr is best. Patience!

[RompingDonkey]

OK, what flavor of epoxy does everyone use ?

I hear a lot about make sure it takes 30+ minutes to cure BUT where do you get it from ?

[Iced696]

Great post Jermo. For the life of me I can't figure out how this turned to what Americans prefer to drive. Give it a break, anti American sentiment has no place here. If you want to bash there are boards for that. This is a Heli site, let's keep it at that.

Additionally, if guys are sick of beating up wood blades just make the change to carbon. They are not all that expensive when you consider what the total cost is for a good bird and will save you money and in the long run.

[yngwie]

Hi all,

I just saw the sticky by DebianDog “Epoxy your grips correctly OR ELSE”.
Should this be done with new stock wood blades such as the stockers for the Blade 400?

I’m just about to put on my first replacement set and wondered if this should be done. If it should be done, should I have removed the blades when I first got this new bird out of the box and done this to the original blades? If this is the case then I’m wondering why E-Flite would not suggest this to the new owners, as this would be a very important thing to know to keep everyone safe.

Also, is a Blade 400 a “30” size heli? What are the sizes starting from small to large (300, 400, 450, 30, 50, etc.)?

Thanks,
Yngwie