Paddles

[BASS 666]

guys on my 50 titan se i have red paddles they came with it. as far as i know the red paddles are lighter than the black ones. my question is.. with me being a novice am i better off with the black paddles ? if so why ? what diff will the black ones make ? thanks guys..

[Dan22]

Paddles

The black paddles are heavier and not as twitchy.

Dan.

[KevDavies]

anything thats heavier and spins calms the heli down

[BASS 666]

dan does it really make a big diff ??

[KevDavies]

in my opinion no, it might be slightly easier to hover, but its nothing that cant be replicated with some expo

[BASS 666]

im used to it now kev but i thought if it made a big diff i would change them..

[Dan22]

Paddles

Kev's right, just dial in a bit more expo.
The difference isn't huge.

Dan.

[Boggy]

Just pop a couple of wheel collets on each end.RC Wheel Collets (10G) 3mm including Key - HFL4503 | eBay then they will be the same as black ones. I fitted a pair of elyq paddles to my scale heli because i thought they looked better! it was damn near unflyable.

[trillian]

Here's the deal, on the Raptor rotorhead the black paddles (31 grams) are at the right weight to where you will have pretty good stability. Basically the flybar will react to correct for wind gusts etc. at a rate that keeps the heli fairly neutral. However, this does have the effect of slowing the cyclics a bit.

If you use the red or green paddles (20 grams) the flybar will be more responsive and the cyclics will be faster but when it comes to holding a position in gusts of wind etc. the heli will tend to tilt into the wind.

So in general the black paddles will give you a more stable hover and somewhat better ability of the heli to hold a position, this applies in forward flight and during an aerobatic manuever as well. If you were doing manic 3D type flying then having the heli track straight or hold a position is not as much of an issue vs if you're doing smooth 'big air' type stuff or trying to do precise hovering.

In order to use the black paddles and get back some cyclic speed for a quicker roll / flip rate, you can do two things; 1. Fit harder dampers. The Raptor dampers have a lot of rubber between the feathering shaft and the inside the hub so even with what seems like fairly hard rubber it ends up still being a relatively soft feel on the controls. They need to be at least 80 duro, probably 90.

The other alternative is to fit the GeForce mixer arms, this way you get both a higher flybar ratio AND more cyclic pitch. I got the GeForce arms for mine and I was able to go back to the black paddles. It hovers rock steady, even in a lot of wind, and yet has fast enough cyclics for proper aileron rolls and smooth aero stuff. (and I kept the red dampers as well, I think they're either 70 or 80 duro, didn't need to go harder after fitting the GeForce mixer arms)

(another way you can get more cyclic speed is using really light blades but stability in wind will suffer, I'm using the TT carbon 600s on mine and they work very well as an all-round blade)

---Just to add. If you want to keep using the red paddles, basically you can calm down the twitchiness using expo and / or limiting the throws. It would be nearly the same in calm conditions but that only slows down your control of the heli it won't affect the actual stability of the heli itself. You can get the same effect as the black paddles by adding about 10 grams on each side right in front of the paddles, make sure you get the flybar as balanced as possible.

[KevDavies]

My 90 has ultra light V-paddles and tbh Sheryl its rock steady in anything less than 20mph winds, and above that its not un controllable. I understand the theory behind it, and accept it must do something. Its just from my tranny I cant tell a jot of difference and ive got blue red black and white TT paddles and V-paddles. Blades made the most difference for me.

Torsions flew nice and smooth but didnt react to direction changes, V-Blades V2's make my heli behave like a 50!

[trillian]

There are lots of variables Kev. All my .90 helis feel more stable than all my .50s no matter what is fitted on them.

The farther the flybar ratio is from being one-to-one the less difference the paddle weights will make because the flybar simply has less authority. Also the shorter the flybar or lower the headspeed the less you will notice a given amount of weight difference.

On any heli there is an optimum combination of flybar length, paddle weight and damper hardness. Back before the days of FBL (or at least before it was as common as it is now). The 3D guys would sacrifice some stability in order to get faster cyclics, this is one reason FBL was such a revelation to lots of guys flying helis setup for 3D as they had become used to the twitchiness and with FBL could have the best of both worlds.

On my Raptor 50V2 I struggled to get the cyclic speed I wanted, even with the green paddles and I think I tried the Ely.Q paddles as well. Looking back I could probably have accomplished what I wanted by finding some really hard dampers but the GeForce mixers were half price so I got a pair and that did the trick. The flybar ratio is pretty much bang on one-to-one and you get more pitch going to the grips as well.

To Bass 666, if you're happy with the way it flies with the red paddles then no need to change them. If it's not sitting still in the wind then adding some weight or the black paddles will definitely make a difference.