SAB Thunderbolt Blades

[mahbouni]

Has anyone tried these blades yet? They just arrived in stock at some UK stores.

How are the flight characteristics compared to other blades you've flown? The specs claim 20% more efficient. Did you get 20% longer flight times?

[jgiannakas]

+1, would be keen on any comparisons especially to stock and/ or the rails!!

[Johnny31297]

Well, VTX actually give you +20% and those are heavily designed for that. TB kinda follow the same scheme but way less pronounced. It will be interesting.

[mahbouni]

I definitely want to try VTX but without an imminent release date I'm tempted to try TB. Also I'm doubtful they'll be available close to all the sizes I currently fly; 505mm, 640mm and 760mm

[Mike656]

Fitted a pair of TB 710s to my Forza a couple of weeks back, to replace a set of Rotortechs. Haven't had a lot of flights yet, but haven't noticed a big difference. About the same weight, TBs are marginally less wide, and a little bit different shape at the tip. Change in chord over the length is noticeable though.

[jgiannakas]

So they have finally arrived. First impressions? Unimpressive. The airfoil is very similar to the rails however they are shorter and slightly thinner throughout the span of the blade. They do look better than the original goblin blades though, as they are slightly wider and the tapered edge does indeed miracles as Ive seen from the rails.

Will give them a try flying in a couple of weeks but Im not holding my breath

All three:


TB vs Rails:



TB vs Stock:

[mahbouni]

A friend of mine tried a trio of 690's on his 700 KSE. He liked them better than the other SABs but not sure if a tri blade comparison is relevant to a 2 setup. I've never flown tri blades before

[jgiannakas]

Originally Posted by mahbouni

A friend of mine tried a trio of 690's on his 700 KSE. He liked them better than the other SABs but not sure if a tri blade comparison is relevant to a 2 setup. I've never flown tri blades before

Compared to the stock Sab ones they look much better. Just that compared to the rail blades for the goblin 500 they seem like they will be a step behind. Shorter, thinner even at the tip and overall reduced airfoil area they seem like they will fly heavier. But have yet to fly them so reserving judgement!!

[jgiannakas]

So I finally flew the 500 thunderbolt blades. And, they are rubbish.

Less floaty than the rails, less power on collective climb and they had this annoying whistling sound when loading them with collective. To the point that I though I had some loose bearings. Swapped them with the rails and the noise went away. I believe they are coming briefly out of track when loading them up but I did not have the patience to explore whether I could fix that.

On the positive side, they are more efficient, giving me an extra 30-45 sec of flight time compared to the rails. And also the Heli feels smaller in the air, I.e. More nimble. And are better than the original sab ones.

But that whistling sound got so much on my nerves that these are never going back on again.

[mahbouni]

https://www.helifreak.com/showpost.p...0&postcount=10

[Bigsby]

Anyone know if SAB blades off a 500 would fit my 480xx ?