Dr.Ben
Elite Veteran
Location: Richmond, VA, USA
| The Freya paddles are a cool design from a quick change of weight standpoint. I know of one contest pilot who commented that he was not pleased with the hover performance because the leading edge profile of the paddle tended to be a little to jumpy around center stick for precise hovering work. You could still try a set for yourself. Weight them up to about 40g. Try some very precise hovering in all wind conditions and see if the paddles tend to exaggerate your subtle inputs, particularly when headed straight into the wind. If they feel OK to you, go with them. If not, go with the MA ProII paddles, some SAB paddles, or even KSJ contest paddles if you have money to burn.
Curtis can make V blades work for contest use, and the winners of the other classes at the Nats last year did, too. I flew against Chip Hyde. He was flying the V blades. He worked well around the deficits of the blades. I would have hated to see how well he would have done if could have settled the model down a little more in hover with less head speed and gained about 15-20 mph more upstairs. From our observation, the V blades fail to produce as high a FF speed as some of the more specific contest blades. Entry speed is critical to get an acceptable upline far stall and rolling stall turn maneuvers. The hovering performance in the wind seemed good, but the head speed required to make the blades hover well was greater than many folks would prefer to run (1550 rpm +). If you really milk a 180 d. CONTEST auto to the ground, you best be ready to take it straight to the spot. I watched pilots using those blades several times try to milk the auto further. The blades tended to dump lift in very sudden fashion just before touch down. The comments were coming from the likes of Cliff Hiatt and Dwight Shilling and Wayne Mann. I tend to listen to what those guys say about contest blade choice.
If you'd like to get a set of less pricey blades to play with, find a set of Gamma/ MA 700mm FAI semis. You'll pay well under $100 for them, and they are a darn good blade.
Ben |
