Fixation
08-06-2007, 03:30 PM
I bought the new RCP Carbon Fiber Main Blades 600mm mainly because everything else was sold out, and thought that I would give Helifreak members an overview of the blades. I am relatively new to the RC world, but I thought some of you might be interested. I fly very mild 3d; I can do flips, rolls, ugly tick-tocks and something that kind of looks like a funnel, just so you know where my standpoint/knowledge/skill level is. I have mainly flown the Align 600A and Radix. So I am using them as my comparison.
Packaging and Inspection:
I ordered the blades from ReadyHeli.com and received my shipment 3 days later via USPS in a long triangular box in perfect condition. The box was filled with Styrofoam and bubble wrap, I was pleased with the packaging. The blades themselves were packaged in plastic wrap with a cardboard label at top (see pic 52). There was no shipping damage to the blades at all.
Upon inspection of the blades, my first response was, “wow”. These blades look incredible with the herringbone weave and the high gloss finish (fingerprints are easily seen after touching, but wipe off easily). The reflective prismatic blade tape is under the clear coat and the seam is not detectible by touch. I found only one minor blemish on the blades; it appears that during the drilling for the main grip bolt, the carbon fiber weave had some tear out (see pic 35). The picture doesn’t show it well but the irregularity appeared to be filled with a bonding agent, or the clear coat effectively smoothed it out. Either way the picture looks worse than in real life, and seemed minor to the overall structure and build of these blades.
Structure / Shape:
I had broken both of my Radix blades in my only crash with my Trex 600, so I matched them up against an Align 600A blade so you can see the shape and size difference (see pic 30). There seems to be a little less overall surface area on the RCP blade due to the swept tip and the longer radius at the base. Both the Align and the RCP will strike the trailing arm control lever arm on the main grip, although due to the longer radius of the RCP base the blade will sweep further back into the grip. The blade fit into my metal grips better than any blade before, and once the bolt was tightened, would rotate extremely smoothly within the grips ( even when I cranked the bolts down very hard, the blades rotated smoothly, like a very good drag on a fishing reel compared to a cheap drag). The airfoil shape of the RCP blade is thinner than the Align, but the RCP holds the thickness longer than the other blade and tapers off more quickly at the trailing edge. The Align is approx 7.5mm thick and the RCP is approx 7.3mm
Here are the specs I could find on the web:
RCP 600mm (as per ReadyHeli)
Length: 600mm
Chord: 55mm
Grips: 12mm
Weight: ~116grams!
Special introductory pricing on these new RCP 600mm Carbon Fiber Blades!
Special Herringbone fiber weave, swept tips, and extremely RIGID.
Special flash tips reflect sunlight, and these are torsionally superior to their competition.
Align 600A (as per Align’s web site)
●Shape: Symmetrical wing
●Length:600x55x7.5mm
●Width:12mm
●Shaft Diameter:4mm
●Weight:270g/set
The biggest difference I found was the weight. 270g vs the 116g of the RCP. In my extremely technical test of flexing the blades in my hands both laterally and torsionally, I found that the RCP’s have a huge advantage over the Align’s in the twisting aspect (torsion), but were slightly more flexible laterally.
Performance:
Keep in mind that I am still learning 3d tricks, and am just a sport flyer, I put these blades to hardest test I could put them. For my test I flew one FP5000 on my Align blades doing FF, inverted hovers, two orientations of ticktocks, climb outs, hard banked fig 8’s and two autorotations. I then swapped out the blades and placed a fresh FP5000 (bought at the same time with the same amount of cycles) into the bird. All the 3d stuff was slightly quicker or more responsive, I won’t say better because I was not use to the quicker response. These blades seemed to jump, especially in ticktocks. I thought that the more flex they would have would slow down their quickness, but I found the opposite true. I need more work in collective management, but these blades helped me. On the opposite end, I never land my 600 with the power on. My auto’s are always low (I’m just new to all this), but I noticed the RCP were very, very less forgiving. I did 2 autos from about 6’ up with no real problems, but I did notice the difference in headspeed. When I went up to about 20’ I found you only have one chance to get it right with the weight of these blades.
My Align 600XL shaft broke one week ago while I was inverted about 50 feet up. I had on the Align 600A’s and I did my first necessary auto (My most proud moment ever, flips—no, inverted---no, necessary auto---yes). I was able to flip it upright, and gently land it with the 600A’s. I am sure I would have had damage with the RCP’s, I am not good enough yet.
Overall:
I pretty much said it all so far. Great blades, made well, very light. I am going to put my Align’s back on until I learn to auto better. But once I have the auto’s down, I will fly the RCP as much as I can have batt’s charged. I liked these blades for the price of $74.95 better than the Align’s, but that is the introductory price according to ReadyHeli. If they go up to $89.95, I think I will go back to the Radix blades, which I thought had the best of all worlds.
Packaging and Inspection:
I ordered the blades from ReadyHeli.com and received my shipment 3 days later via USPS in a long triangular box in perfect condition. The box was filled with Styrofoam and bubble wrap, I was pleased with the packaging. The blades themselves were packaged in plastic wrap with a cardboard label at top (see pic 52). There was no shipping damage to the blades at all.
Upon inspection of the blades, my first response was, “wow”. These blades look incredible with the herringbone weave and the high gloss finish (fingerprints are easily seen after touching, but wipe off easily). The reflective prismatic blade tape is under the clear coat and the seam is not detectible by touch. I found only one minor blemish on the blades; it appears that during the drilling for the main grip bolt, the carbon fiber weave had some tear out (see pic 35). The picture doesn’t show it well but the irregularity appeared to be filled with a bonding agent, or the clear coat effectively smoothed it out. Either way the picture looks worse than in real life, and seemed minor to the overall structure and build of these blades.
Structure / Shape:
I had broken both of my Radix blades in my only crash with my Trex 600, so I matched them up against an Align 600A blade so you can see the shape and size difference (see pic 30). There seems to be a little less overall surface area on the RCP blade due to the swept tip and the longer radius at the base. Both the Align and the RCP will strike the trailing arm control lever arm on the main grip, although due to the longer radius of the RCP base the blade will sweep further back into the grip. The blade fit into my metal grips better than any blade before, and once the bolt was tightened, would rotate extremely smoothly within the grips ( even when I cranked the bolts down very hard, the blades rotated smoothly, like a very good drag on a fishing reel compared to a cheap drag). The airfoil shape of the RCP blade is thinner than the Align, but the RCP holds the thickness longer than the other blade and tapers off more quickly at the trailing edge. The Align is approx 7.5mm thick and the RCP is approx 7.3mm
Here are the specs I could find on the web:
RCP 600mm (as per ReadyHeli)
Length: 600mm
Chord: 55mm
Grips: 12mm
Weight: ~116grams!
Special introductory pricing on these new RCP 600mm Carbon Fiber Blades!
Special Herringbone fiber weave, swept tips, and extremely RIGID.
Special flash tips reflect sunlight, and these are torsionally superior to their competition.
Align 600A (as per Align’s web site)
●Shape: Symmetrical wing
●Length:600x55x7.5mm
●Width:12mm
●Shaft Diameter:4mm
●Weight:270g/set
The biggest difference I found was the weight. 270g vs the 116g of the RCP. In my extremely technical test of flexing the blades in my hands both laterally and torsionally, I found that the RCP’s have a huge advantage over the Align’s in the twisting aspect (torsion), but were slightly more flexible laterally.
Performance:
Keep in mind that I am still learning 3d tricks, and am just a sport flyer, I put these blades to hardest test I could put them. For my test I flew one FP5000 on my Align blades doing FF, inverted hovers, two orientations of ticktocks, climb outs, hard banked fig 8’s and two autorotations. I then swapped out the blades and placed a fresh FP5000 (bought at the same time with the same amount of cycles) into the bird. All the 3d stuff was slightly quicker or more responsive, I won’t say better because I was not use to the quicker response. These blades seemed to jump, especially in ticktocks. I thought that the more flex they would have would slow down their quickness, but I found the opposite true. I need more work in collective management, but these blades helped me. On the opposite end, I never land my 600 with the power on. My auto’s are always low (I’m just new to all this), but I noticed the RCP were very, very less forgiving. I did 2 autos from about 6’ up with no real problems, but I did notice the difference in headspeed. When I went up to about 20’ I found you only have one chance to get it right with the weight of these blades.
My Align 600XL shaft broke one week ago while I was inverted about 50 feet up. I had on the Align 600A’s and I did my first necessary auto (My most proud moment ever, flips—no, inverted---no, necessary auto---yes). I was able to flip it upright, and gently land it with the 600A’s. I am sure I would have had damage with the RCP’s, I am not good enough yet.
Overall:
I pretty much said it all so far. Great blades, made well, very light. I am going to put my Align’s back on until I learn to auto better. But once I have the auto’s down, I will fly the RCP as much as I can have batt’s charged. I liked these blades for the price of $74.95 better than the Align’s, but that is the introductory price according to ReadyHeli. If they go up to $89.95, I think I will go back to the Radix blades, which I thought had the best of all worlds.