Got new blades, What are you running?

[f22warzone]

While trying to solve my vibration problem I decided I would try new blades to see if maybe I got a bad set of Radix 710FAI blades, turns out I did and am now trying to get an RMA.

However, the heart of this post is the blades I replaced them with. I decided I would go with SAB Red/ White/ Black 710mm Main Blade - Hard 3D - New Design, And I must say I am very very impressed with these blades, and am kind of surprised that I haven't found many more post about them even on the 700n forums.

These blades seem to be a lot lighter then the FAI blades (go figure) and the CoG is almost in the center of the blades. The cord is about 1mm wider also on the SAB's

Performance wise though they blow the FAI blades away, I saw cooler motor and ESC temps along with less amp draw, Increased flight time of about 45 seconds so far from 4 min 30 seconds to about 5 min 15 seconds...... that's a pretty huge improve meant, also my servos are a lot cooler to.


Stability, while they are a lot lighter, I am impressed with my sk 720 as the blades fly just as smooth as the FAI blades in FFF, Loops, and stability in hover is the exact same, so it appears that with today's FBL technology there is no need for big heavy blades as the electrics seem to have it down.

Flips and rolls were a lot smoother with the SAB blades with less head bogging.
Both blades are just as aggressive during the initial bite in pitch change but the SAB's flip and roll faster over all. The SAB's Do over all feel a bit more crisp but I guess that's why they're a 3d blade and not FAI : ) Probably shouldn't even compare the two but the fact that I could get the stability of FAI's in some hard 3d blades was pretty amazing.

The only down side I found is that almost no matter how hard I pushed them they were really quite blades, I am guessing this could be why they are also more efficient.
Also they are not nearly as pretty as the Radix blades, but still look good : )

Also as you can see I am getting pretty close to blade strikes with 120mm tail blades and 710mm main blades : ) idk if I would go much bigger on either. Probably about a 3' deflection in the blade to get it that close though, didn't want to go much more as the blade didn't seem that flexible.

Above all though I am really surprised with the increase in efficiency, Running both blades at 2210 RPM and the SAB's are rated for 2500 rpm so I may try 100% on the KDE 1917 just to see what's up.

Man I need to buy a Cannon Ti2 Camera If I only wasn't a college student.

[Doug Darby]

QUICK... RUN FOR YOUR LIVES... This heli must have been subject to severe radiation and has mutated by growing a 3rd landing strut...(lol)

I just put on a set of Align 3G and other than being a lot more "vocal" they seem to work fine for my use...

[tribe3]

Nice writeup; I will give those Sabs a try. I just got some Radix 710 FBL and put them on for a test hover and they feel good.

Do I have to make any changes to the setup for 710s? I'm also using SK-720. I was with a HS of 2150 with 690s with only 60% throttle in gov with the Jive 80

[K2Freak]

690 Radix FBL - LOVE 'EM!!

[GoRgOyL]

Still rockin' the stock 690D blades, probably have 200+ flights on these.


Scraped asphalt with it one too many times, still holding up despite the damage.

[f22warzone]

Ha lol I like my mutated landing gear, haven't had it break yet : ) , And you are flying really good, or really bad to have blade scrapes : )

For 710 Blades you will probably want to let it self tune bell gains again and increase you roll rates along with Swash mixing on elevator and aileron cyclic by about 2-4 points, to make up for the small loss in flip ability. I also found that for heavier blades I had to turn down my damping gain by 2 points.

Also do the Align 3g blades seem more stable then the 690D blades?

[Doug Darby]

I put the 3G blades on the same time I took off the 3G and installed my new VBar so I cant' say exactly how much the stability increased from just the blades. I do have a pair of the regular Align blades so I will try to remember to do a test and switch them back and forth to see if there is a real difference in the stability and feel.

[Mystic3D]

Originally Posted by sacolvin

690 Radix FBL - LOVE 'EM!!

If you want another pair you might search my posts today, they will be gone quick