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Main Discussion > Dangerous Carbon-Fibre Blades

meowsqueak
Senior Heliman
Location: New Zealand

Looks like I'm not the only one - a flying colleague found these reviews on the HobbyCity.com website:

"I buy 4 pairs of this blades. The firs that i test. The heli lost the tracking. When i go to veryfy, the wholes where fix the blade at blade holder dislocate from your original location. If i try to fly one more time, the blade goes out from the blade holder and can hurt injurious some persons and damage so much the heli. Please, review this item. Or a problem whith my item. I report this to Hobbycity, but without any response from them yet. Still waiting. Jeff"

"If anyone buy this balde please check the strength and the stiffness of this blade, Mine got broken in blade root while hovering in low rpm"

04-14-2008 05:34 AM

meowsqueak
Senior Heliman
Location: New Zealand

No reply whatsoever from the retailer. Pretty disappointing that they haven't sent me a response and continue to sell these blades.

www.hobbycity.com

04-16-2008 02:14 AM

dkshema
rrProfessor
Location: Cedar Rapids, IA

Mavrikk G4-Pros are good, and I've even seen posts by people who would only consider Mavrikks for paint stirrers recommending the new wide-chord Mavrikk G5-Pros.

-----

* Making the World a Better Place -- One Helicopter at a time! *

Dave

04-16-2008 02:23 AM

meowsqueak
Senior Heliman
Location: New Zealand

I've now got a pair of 600mm fibre-glass GCTs that should be fine for my skill level for a while. Thanks for all the suggestions though.

04-16-2008 02:25 AM

vfastr6
Veteran
Location: Cape Town, RSA

The GCTs will work fine for now I'm sure.

Invest in a good/more expensive blade - as your flying level improves you will feel the difference of a high end blades like a MAH, NHP, Radix, V-Blade etc.

Marc

I'd Rather Be Flying But I Have To Work to Pay For my Crashes!

04-16-2008 07:39 AM

HOMEPAGE

pigs dont fly
Key Veteran
Location: Ruined UK

United Hobbies/Hobby city have a vendors thread on RC groups, I think you should plaster it with photos of your blades.

The blades failing like that is diabolical, they could easily have killed someone.

Warning...This hobby is very addictive and may damage your wealth

04-16-2008 11:19 AM

wrathofkhan
Veteran
Location: LA, CA - US

I learned my lesson from this vendor on ebay ...

http://cgi.ebay.com/Carbon-fiber-bl...1QQcmdZViewItem

the blades had bubbles, not symetrical, and gashes on the leading edge. the seller is not located in santa barbra as mentioned in the post. terrible experience ... took forever to get my money back, and only got 50% back

04-16-2008 11:26 AM

PietervA
Veteran
Location: New Zealand

The FG GCTs are fine for hovering and getting around to begin with. Best thing is the fact they're easily available in NZ. I wouldn't bother with their carbons.

As you improve, I'd consider (from NZ) SAB FG 600s, and end up with the carbon SABs or Radix, both of which you can readily buy from Cyberheli. QUK often has sharp prices on SABs. Both these vendors have reasonable postage rates.

I use the analogy of car tyres, which form the only contact between the vehicle and the road!

04-16-2008 11:56 AM

tlankford01
Senior Heliman
Location: Amarillo, TX 79110

With anything that is as complicated as a helicopter being cheap does not pay. I understand that this hobby is expensive and sure we want to save a buck or two when we can. Important parts should not be purchased cheaply. If you want cheap blades get wodies or fiberglass. If you want CF spend an extra $20-$30 and get quality blades. Myself I use Radix but there are other great name brand blades out there. Not to say that even quality manufactures don't make a mistake but 4 of 4 is pretty telling on your blades. Helicopter's on a budget is an oxymoron. you get what you pay for.

04-16-2008 11:57 AM

HOMEPAGE

meowsqueak
Senior Heliman
Location: New Zealand

Got a reply back - they are only willing to consider a replacement if I send them back to Hong Kong for assessment and I pay the postage, non-refundable. Outgoing from NZ, that ain't gonna be cheap. Not sure it's worth it for only US$76 worth of blades...

"Thanks for your email.
We are sorry to hear on the defective on the product.
However,if you believe your item to be faulty or incorrect, you can send it back to us for inspection and replacement.
...
We must receive the faulty back before replacement.
Please note that no postage refund will be available,
please send it by the cheapest way which has a tracking service."

That said, it looks like they aren't treating the issue as particularly serious - I sent them the photos and sort-of expected a "whoa, we'd better get onto this ASAP" reply but that looks like a fairly standard reply.

Anyway, I don't want "replacement"!!!

EDIT: replacement, not refund

04-16-2008 11:59 AM

meowsqueak
Senior Heliman
Location: New Zealand

Quote
Helicopter's on a budget is an oxymoron. you get what you pay for.

I completely agree with you - but bear in mind that without the benefit of hindsight:

1. I was new to this, no idea what a 'good' blade was when I bought these.
2. they are "carbon-fibre" so I figured they had to be better than wooden blades, and the same price.
3. I thought they were cheaper than NZ sold blades just because they were from Hong Kong, where everything is cheaper than everywhere else. I bought them along with a bunch of other heli stuff (also cheaper than NZ but exact same brands, e.g. OS, Futaba).
4. It didn't occur to me that they were cheap because they were rubbish - I didn't think anyone in their right mind would make helicopter blades without extreme care. Now I know...
5. Other people had recommended blades from this retailer to me.

I'm more than happy to pay for decent blades and I will in future. I got caught out because I didn't know better.

04-16-2008 12:05 PM

himaxkeith
Senior Heliman
Location: Atlantic City NJ. USA

Thats not the result of cheep blades. Thats is from high freq vibration from a bent main shaft or spindle or maybe from bad bearings in the grips. I had the samething with my tail blades after three sets of carbon tail blades all of the them looked the same as your photos of your mainblades found out the tail hub was slightly bent. I changed a set of blades spooled the heli up and just before lift off I slung a tail blade before you can see what was going on a blade was gone. Before you fly again check the hole head for the slightest defects mast,spindle, bearings, blade shims and the blade bolts [diameter]if you need the bushings on the bolts or not. If you go out and buy more expensive blades you going to have the same result just is going to cost you more and may hold up slightly longer then a cheep set but your going to have the same results in the end.BUT CHECK EVERYTHING it could really hurt somebody or yourself if you just slap on another set of blades and the samething happens again

04-17-2008 02:17 AM

dkshema
rrProfessor
Location: Cedar Rapids, IA

Generally a slightly bent MR shaft or bad MR grip bearings won't cause your blade roots to fail as in the pictures.

You may have had trouble with your tail rotor blades, but typically the TR blades are spinning at a much higher RPM than the mains...2000 max on the head could be something on the order of 4,000 to 5,000 on the tail for a 50 sized heli.

The blades pictured in the original post are simply defective and unsafe. The damage is not due to a bent shaft.

A bent MR or spindle shaft will show up as a low frequency vibration in the heli and/or the inability to track the blades. To have the roots simply rip out due to a slightly bent shaft isn't going to happen.

-----

* Making the World a Better Place -- One Helicopter at a time! *

Dave

04-17-2008 02:39 AM

meowsqueak
Senior Heliman
Location: New Zealand

Vibration, hmmm, perhaps.

The heli vibrates a little (low freq, more of a 'wobble'

at initial spool-up (I imagine it's because the blades are settling, tail too) but once it reaches 1000 RPM or so and higher the vibration disappears. Everything is practically brand new and never crashed or dropped. Only 17 flights total. The previous set of blades (same 'brand'

worked fine but they show signs of a similar thing happening so I'm not using them again.

I realise vibrations above 50 Hz or so won't be visible and their amplitude is likely to be low. It's possible. I'll check over the rotor head anyway as you suggest.

Of course once the blade failed the tracking went completely out and the heli started vibrating quite vigorously, but it was immediately landed and shut down at that time.

04-17-2008 03:08 AM

fly be free
Senior Heliman
Location: zanesville,ohio

boy i am glad you posted this i was just ready to buy some of thoose blades to try them out
dont think i need to try them out now after seeing your pics
thanks for posting

These days about half the stuff in my shopping cart says, 'For fast relief.

04-17-2008 03:09 AM

ozace
Key Veteran
Location: melbourne, australia

Sorry you are out of $$. You have saved me from buying a few sets of different sizes though, so thanks.

we can never have too many, can we ?

04-17-2008 03:28 AM

racingstripe
Veteran
Location: Sacramento, CA

For the hobby/recreational use of carbon fiber there's not much of a variance in the fiber itself.

The failure is most likely from an incomplete wet-out of the root section underlying reinforcement, inferior layup in the root or sub-grade resin. From the pics, it look to me like a combination of the latter two.

Quote
Can anyone recommend some safe but cost-competitive CF or FG brands suitable for a semi-beginner?

In NZ, what's it like to purchase from Japan?

FunTech makes a really nice blade.

A621, FT-600-3D CARBON
A623, FT-600G-3D (fiberglass)

The fiberglass version works just about as good as the carbon ones...

Ishiimokei has them.

andy-

Proofread carefully to see if you any words out.

04-17-2008 03:36 AM

HOMEPAGE

helimatt
Elite Veteran
Location: Lafayette, IN

I succumbed to the temptation and bought a set of these- just flew about four flights on my Trex600e. They really fly pretty well (look kinda rough though), but I'm taking them off and checking the hub carefully now. Hmmm. Well, a risk I knew I was taking.

RJX blades I had gotten from Ebay were excellent for about $62 shipped.

Best bargain I had was a used set of V TST's that fly excellent, but unfortunately I bunged up the hub area of one of them in a crash.

Keep an eye out for people selling blades that are in good flying condition for bargains. Your mileage may vary.

Never, ever, ever, ever give up.

04-17-2008 03:38 AM

meowsqueak
Senior Heliman
Location: New Zealand

racingstripe - I've bought from Ishiimokei before, so I might check them out. Thanks for the info.

04-17-2008 03:51 AM

himaxkeith
Senior Heliman
Location: Atlantic City NJ. USA

meowsqueak ,Check your heli to see if something is worn or bent it is a safty issue even if you dont find anything and it turns out just the blades at least you will know .I would inspect the heli then if everything is ok throw a set of blades on run it for a minute or two then check the blades to see if its still going on. Good luck and keep us posted.

04-17-2008 04:29 AM

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