Practicing Inverted - Wood Blades OK?

[homerlex]

I have a Raptor 50. As I mentioned before I'm pretty new at flying inverted. I do have a set of carbon blades but also have a few sets of woodies. Just wondering if its OK to used the woodies for practicing inverted hovering. Nothing crazy.

I know the hovering part is tame on the blades but a little concerned about the stress during the flip.

Thanks in advance.

[cbflys]

What you have to watch out for using wood blades is the head speed. They're not designed for the high head speeds required for 3D manouvers. If you're doing simple aerobatics and inverted flying they'll be fine.

I'd recommend keeping your head speed under 1600 with them.

[tdswan]

Yeah, What CB said. :D

[AaronS]

its likely your heli will not fly well at 1600 rpm, for a 30 size heli with woodies, keep it under 1900, for a 50 I would keep it under 1800. if you are flying at 1600 don't try any aerobatics, you will bog the head very easily, and it will be much more sluggish, slow to respond and easy to bog. I had a guy bring a raptor 30 to me asking for setup help, his headspeed was over 2200 on woodies, and although that was WAY too fast and I immidiately fixed it, he had been flying it like that for 6 months... you should be fine with woodies, just keep them in check :rolleyes:

[cbflys]

I can't speak for a .50 size heli - because I've never flown one with wood blades. I have however flown .30 size helis with wood blades at 1600 RPM quite well. As I said, simple aerobatics (loops, rolls, 540 stall turns) and inverted hovering. If you want to do more than that, you're probably ready for carbons.

I worry about woods swinging faster than that because 1) the tip weights are glued in and if you didn't glue them yourself - your at the mercy of those who did. If you throw one it's basically a bullet. 2) the bolt holes are a weak point - even with the plastic root reinforcements.

As Aaron said - you can PROBABLY run woodies faster. But at the sake of safety - I wouldn't.

[heli-cuzz]

Out of all my smackdowns. Woodies were the ones that would have pieces breaking off and go where ever. My carbons have always remained intact but severely cracked and split.
However, woodies are fine for practicing inverted flying and mild aerobatics.

[homerlex]

Thanks for the replies every one. I'll keep the RPMs reasonable and won't go crazy with the woodies :)

[theBZA]

I would assume you have flipped it by now, as this was a month ago.

But there are people who read this stuff...

Something a person needs to keep in mind, with a slow headspeed, is that it will take some effort to flip the heli. It will be very slow to respond, and take some time for the heli to complete the whole flip or roll.

GET YOURSELF AN ALTITUDE CUSHION

If you had been practicing loops, rolls, inverted, etc on the simulator, keep in mid that the default heli's are usually set up with a 2000-ish head speed, for 3D.
They move quick.

Figure the time it takes for the heli to flip on the sim, and double that time for what it is going to take in real life.


My Raptor 50, with carbon blades, turns a headspeed of 2075 in idle-up mode, with the super light weight green paddles. It is pretty quick.