ErichF
Key Veteran
Location: Odessa, FL 33556 (Tampa Area)
| Update on these blades is very positive.
I put about a gallon of fuel under these blades today, with a variety of wind conditions. Winds varied from calm to gusty 10 kts.
I swapped out these blades from DY Product 700s without requiring any tracking adjustments. The first flight I got a side to side wobble on the Caliber 90 at 1450-1550 RPM. The wobble cleared out way before reaching my forward flight RPM of 1900. I think it's something specific with the Caliber and my setup. In any case, I lowered the hover RPM to 1420, and the wobble was gone. I also loosened up the dampers on the head.
These blades have some weight. I don't have a gram scale at home, so I don't know the exact weight on them yet. What I do know is that it takes a little longer to spool them up, and they hang forever at the bottom of even my autos 
Hovering was stable and predictive. Even in gusty air, the workload was not too bad, compared to the DYs I had been flying. I did notice a reduction in hover pitch, as is expected with blades 20mm longer and 1mm wider. In calm air, the Caliber was virtualy a flying gyroscope with these blades.
Upstairs, these things sing. Despite their longer span and wider chord, my YS91ST had no issues pulling full pitch passes. In fact, I added more Pitch AFR to get even more top end speed, which the YS91 obliged. I think these blades have much lower parasitic drag, because I couldn't get these speeds and this much pitch on the DYs.
To get straight rolls, I added a 5% mix of back elevator cyclic with aileron. Loops and pulls to vertical lines remain straight. The speed yeilds great vertical performance. I did have to increase my aileron cyclic rates, as these big heavy things slowed down my rolls quite a bit compared to the DYs. The rolling stall turn in AMA Class 3 was a bit rushed with my original rates.
The 180 auto has been my nemisis since I started AMA class 3. I think it's mostly because of the blades I was using. I was able to pull much more consistent autos with these blades, as the descent rate was lower, and the final approach control was much better. I could start slowing down and adding pitch much earlier than I could with the DYs. This resulted in a more stable, controlled approach to the pad, as opposed to the dive and pull approach I was used to.
These blades are a winner in my book, and I will continue to fly these for the upcoming season. They cost a bit more than some of the competition at $130 + shipping, but I feel it's worth it.
Erich |
