Blade Balancing

[Hairball]

Would I be right in thinking that it's smart to weigh your blades before balancing? It might save time. If so what sort of scales would I use? In other words what's the best bang for my buck? I have a Lama V-3, what's the best way to balnce them? Do I dissasemble down to the shafts and then balance? I haven't got a clue - help!

Wow! This is addictive, getting new bird soon!

[rizla4u]

search ytube or googlevideo for blade balancing, pretty easy no need to strip the heli of anything but the blades

[David Drew]

There has been another thread on balancing. The discussion at my field on Sunday was that you should not have to balance blades on an expensive set of blades - I am aware woodies would need it.

Decent GRP or Carbon blades should come balanced.

(Not sure what sort of blades a Lama V3 has mind you)

David

[Smoothound]

It's good practice to check them whatever but I have to be honest and say my check method these days is slap them on spool up and see

[Boggy]

its a small contra mate blade balance is not absolutley critical!!

[David Drew]

its a small contra mate blade balance is not absolutley critical!!

Actually Ron, if I use an unbalanced pair of blades on my Medevac it really shows up. (Vibration) I take the advice to use pairs with the same markings in the blade root (cavity numbers) and that seems to help.

I also buy the Blade CX sets as they are half the price of the Medevac ones & are exactly the same product.

David

[Boggy]

point taken david it was me who posted about blade root numbers! if these match there is no need to balance them!
actually quick edit i dont think the lama ones are marked if i remember right. mmmm i'll have a look!

[David Drew]

point taken david it was me who posted about blade root numbers! if these match there is no need to balance them!
actually quick edit i dont think the lama ones are marked if i remember right. mmmm i'll have a look!

Have to say Ron, a bit of a wobble does sometimes help counteract the dumb-thumb syndrome after a night out

[AndyThilo]

I'd always balance blades, expensive or not. If their going on my heli I want to know that their c of g is spot on and their balanced perfectly.

In fact it's a bit of a joke at my club. I static balanced my rotor head using weights on the flybar with one weight being further out than the other so looks strange. Everyone thinks that their for stability and i've made a mistake, but I know better

And yes it flys perfectly smooth with no vibrations at all.

[Boggy]

how do you get the c o g spot on, on a plastic blade 8inches long and weighing 3 grams!!!

the prefered method for balancing contra blades is selotape stuck on the bottom surface. not very scientific and not very acurate!!!

hair ball
take the blades off the heli bolt them together and use the bolt as a pivot point then weight the lightest blade with a small strip of selotape on the lower surface!

[AndyThilo]

how do you get the c o g spot on, on a plastic blade 8inches long and weighing 3 grams!!!

Well no ok, maybe not on those blades However there will always be a pivot point on a set of blades no matter how small they are

[Hairball]

Great idea!

hair ball
take the blades off the heli bolt them together and use the bolt as a pivot point then weight the lightest blade with a small strip of selotape on the lower surface![/quote]

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Right-on, will do. I notice there's a tad of grease on the mounting end of the blade. It's probably there to lubricate so that they, flop (gee, right word?) out straigtht when she powers up. I guess vassaline's a good lube for this on new blades. The E-sky blades are nicley made, though fragile, it doesn't take much to crack them. But they're nice and thin and look aerodynamically good, not that I'd know the difference!

I saw a movie of a guy who had modified his V-4 and got 29mph out of it, it looks good. He flew it very high at quite a range, what's the normal radio range for the V-3 and 4? That's why I'm interested in antenna mods, if any. Any ideas on this? Would I be better off letting the 2 feet or so antenna just dangle? But then it could end-up in the rotor blades. I may make up a very thin piece of piano-wire and mount it horizontally. Advice sought and welcome.

Jeepers, it's +1 above freezing here, going to chat with Johnny Walker when I'm off duty! Cyber beers to all!

[Hairball]

Don't know how I got my last post here... still learning!