wooden blades without plastic covering??

[glen_j]

would they be ok without the plastic covering? i bought a second hand thunder tiger raptor 30 v2 and it looks like the blades are supposed to have a clear plastic covering on them but it has been removed it has never been flow hoping to finish it soon and wanted to check before its first flight.

cheers

[Twister]

You can buy replacement heatshrink blade covering from midland helicopters.

[jamiem]

id not fly without the covering, its there to stop the air penetrating in to the wood and splitting it apart. it makes a smooth surface for the air to pass over

[Fixxxer]

Could you not varnish them with something like yacht varnish ?

[Dashik]

Why bother? Sounds like a lot af aggravation to get the finish right just to wreck them 30 seconds after you fit them..........

[David Drew]

I was told they also absorb water without the wrapping. Could unbalance them as could applying varnish unevenly. IMHO

David

[kevinh]

Heatshrink from midland use the partners hair dryer job done

[skatefreak]

Jst varnish carfully not and make sure their ballanced (can be perfected with ballancing tape), and your good to go
Ps, the cover does stop the absorbsion of oil and such which would cause the light balsa wood to degrade very quickly and undoubtably fail in flight (not to mention wreck their ballancing)

-Jvr

[Boggy]

nooo heat shrink on them!!! it is so satisfying watching it wrap around the blade ....great fun

[glen_j]

thanks for the replies, does anyone have a link and price for these? or would it be cheaper / easier to buy new blades?

[glen_j]

bought some cheers guys now to wait for the heat shrinking fun to begin when they arrive. any tips on how to do them?

[j42]

I need to recover my blades is there any info on how to do it mainly how to seal the ends
cheers

[glen_j]

i found it a right pain to do and never used them, i ended up getting another set of wooden blades as they were not very expensive. as for the ends once i had heat shrunk the tubing i glued both ends to seal them up.