Cyclone 695s vs Rail 716s

[Danny Dugger]

Hi guys - last October I was looking for a comparison of these blades on the E7SE and never found one. So I bought both, flew the 716s for about 6 months to develop an ingrained feel for them and just recently bolted the Cyclones on for comparison. Flying at the same head speeds I was very surprised to find that the Cyclones are quite a bit slower on cyclic than the Rails. After adjusting my FBL accordingly they do fly very well, I have not been disappointed with either set.

The Cyclones make a funny high pitch whistling noise at lower headspeeds, but they perform great. They have quite similar collective feel to the 716s which says a lot for a 695mm blade, and auto performance is surprisingly similar. The Cyclones also seem stable at high air speeds (1950 rpm and 13° full collective) but I haven't done any real speed flying with them. I think my packs are a little happier with Cyclones as well so they do live up to their claims to efficiency and lift quite well.

Rail blades are simply amazing. They are quiet, have incredibly fast cyclic response, are stable at high speeds, and live up to their namesake. You just can't go wrong with a set of rails at any size.

All in all both are very impressive blades, I was just shocked that the cyclic response is slower with Cyclones. I honestly thought it would have been the other way around. If you want to fly primarily low headspeed I would give Rail 716s the nod just because they sound better, and their cyclic quickness helps for low hs 3d. At normal to higher headspeeds it could go either way and will of course (as always) come down to personal preference and tuning. Both fly great 3d and still feel stable. Both look awesome (I do especially like the swept tips on the cyclones). Hope this helps someone.

[Underscore]

Thanks for your opinion. I was considering getting cyclones as well (because of the raving reviews), but from what you're saying, the 716 have similar performance, so I'll stick with those.

[GJacksonF3N]

Wow, surprise by that as well.

[Retired2011]

I read a similar post by someone else recently, comparing Cyclone blades to Radix, I think... I'll have to see if I can find it.
In a nutshell they went back to Radix.

[B.Ewing]

thanks for the insight

[mkovalcson]

Dropping 21mm could also reduce your pop. 716 to 695 is a lot of lost size.

I've run Radix 710mm V2's and 695's on my TDR.

I've run Rail 556, Radix 554, Edge 553, Cyclone 555's.

I like my TDR much better with the Cyclone 695's. They feel more locked in and my flight times improved noticably. Since I fly by mah I get every bit of flying out of my batteries than I can.

With the TDR going from a 710mm blade to a 695mm blade meant I needed to reduce my tail gain.

In the case of the 550 size heli I was already running 553-556mm blades and I found because it had extra pop that I had to increase my tail gain a bit.

I felt like my 550SX was able to do slow 3D a noticably better at lower headspeeds after I put the Cyclones on it.

I think sometimes people don't adjust the FBL settings for the blades after switching them out. They all behave a bit differently and if you don't tweak for them the one that flies the best may just be a better match for your settings.

The Cyclones both 695 and 555's do whistle a bit at lower head speeds. I think the idea is that the shape of the blade tips is supposed to send the air out further so the air is cleaner, but you need a certain amount of head speed before that happens. When you speed up the blades they quiet down. That was weird the first time I noticed it.

Anyway, I felt more pop with my Cyclones and really like them. However I know a guy who recently went back to his Radix blades and said they felt more locked in. My "guess" is that his tail gains were not tweaked for the Cyclones.

It's tough because this is somewhat subjective and FBL configuration makes a big difference.

I know another guy who flies a nearly identical 550SX to me but at higher head speeds. He said that it felt locked in with the Rails and unsettled with the Cyclones. I don't think the Cyclones need as much cyclic pitch. At the lower headspeeds I am flying, I like every last bit of pop I can get.

Different strokes!

[Danny Dugger]

Yeah, cyclones offer a ton of lift & pop, for a 695mm blade. They were surprisingly similar to 716s in that regard.
I definitely agree with tuning to your blades. However, flying two sets with the same settings will highlight the change in flight characteristics between the two.