Cheep blades

[MpVpRb]

I just got a 450X

Wow! it flies great.

I got it as a beater, to try new and dangerous stuff with a low crash cost.

Does anybody have any experience with the HobbyKing $4 fiberglass blades?

[HFMan]

No experience, but I wouldn't even consider these. You need blades intended for flybarless heads- they are weighted on the leading edge to enhance stability. Those fiberglass cheapos might work, but you'll have to slow the headspeed WAY down. It will still fly like garbage. I wouldn't subject the AR7200BX to the vibrations these blades will induce.

[Talesin]

Cheapest blades that people have had success with are Align 3G 325D blades. Have a set on mine and it flies pretty good; they're 325mm though instead of 335 like the stock ones, so you lose a bit of lift (approximately 6% reduced rotor effect area). At $13 a set though compared to $35 for the stockers, it's worth it if you think you may hit the dirt with something other than the skids.

Do NOT go for 450 3D woodies or cheapo fiberglass blades... it may turn out to be a lot more costly than just shelling out for a few sets of Align 3Gs.

[FuntanaS]

Originally Posted by HFMan

No experience, but I wouldn't even consider these. You need blades intended for flybarless heads- they are weighted on the leading edge to enhance stability. Those fiberglass cheapos might work, but you'll have to slow the headspeed WAY down. It will still fly like garbage. I wouldn't subject the AR7200BX to the vibrations these blades will induce.

If you haven't tried them then how do you know they are so bad? I use the $3 fiberglass blades from hobbypartz and they fly great. Although they are out of stock all the time.

[TheHeliDude]

I'm using them and the difference to me isn't huge. When I try to pull up hard it doesn't pull up as quickly but if you are regularly crashing maybe you should go through a few sets of these then move up to the align CF blades when you're ready. These blades work, the balance has been off a little on some of them so make sure to check that.

[mtuccio]

I'm not going to say much except you guys are playing with fire running FRP blades at 3200-3600rpms's.

The other thing that needs to be heavily considered id the weight of the blade. The stock blades are 22 grams and the Aligns that people are flying are around 20 grams. This is a very important factor that needs to be considered when buying blades for FBL machines....

I'm outta here...

[450X]

I had about 80 flights with the EXI FG blades. I ran them with 100% throttle curve too. I had no problems at all, but I was told they weren't recomended for that much head speed and it could be dangerous; so I switched to the EXI CF blades. The CF blades felt better in higher stress menuvers, so I did eventually break down and get some Align 3G blades.

To me, the Align 3G blades didn't feel any different than the EXI CF blades.

I'm aproaching 200 flights and still haven't crashed yet, it just flys so nice, so I'm keeping the Align blades on it.

[puttekula]

Originally Posted by mtuccio

I'm not going to say much except you guys are playing with fire running FRP blades at 3200-3600rpms's.

The other thing that needs to be heavily considered id the weight of the blade. The stock blades are 22 grams and the Aligns that people are flying are around 20 grams. This is a very important factor that needs to be considered when buying blades for FBL machines....

I'm outta here...

The align 3G are 22g

[mtuccio]

Just to be clear on my last statement:

Align 325D 3G (HD320D) = 23g each (good match for stock blade)
Align 325D (HD320B) = 20g each (works well but might need to tone down pot1 a bit)
Align 325D (HD320A) = 18g each (starting to get a little on the light side for stock settings to still work correctly)

My comment on the weight was based on people using FRP blades which are really very light. I have not had a chance to weigh a set of these yet but plan on doing this when I get back to the shop. As the blade gets lighter you are going to need to tune the BeastX differently. If you get too light on the blades then you can also have control loop stability issues which can't easily be fixed.

[whodothevoodoo]

Tuesday evening I weighed and balanced two sets of the Align 325, 3G blades. Neither set was perfectly balanced. Total weight checked on a very accurate electic grain/gram scale for each blade ran 19.78g/19.85g and 19.68g/19.76g.

The CoG on both sets was so close to perfect that I could not see a difference.

[godwisper]

Ordered some slight seconds align 3g blades which should arrive tomorrow.....was undecided ifto get a set of edge blades but they are twice as much....