What blades for a beginner & scale / sport flying - wood, carbon or glass fibre?

[Pabs]

As per title really,

I'm currently flying my nitro's (see sig) with woodies as I don't feel that I need anything more seeing as I'll probably be breaking them and they are much cheaper, but I wanted to see whether people thought I was doing the right thing. I'm never going to be doing 3D, and probably still only basic manoevers for the next year or so. (depending on how much time I get behind the tx)

I do have some cheap glass fibre blades, but I hear bad things about the cheaper end of CF/GF blades so am not sure if I want to use them.
A lot of local flyers have told me I shouldn't be using wood blades at all... as they are only rated to a fairly low RPM - but wooden blades have NEVER caused me a problem.

If you think I should bin the woodies altogether - please suggest the best BUDGET blades for 30 & 50 size nitro models - I don't want to be spending big £££ while learning.
Thx

[KevDavies]

GCT glass fibre blades are fantastic quality and will transform your heli. Yes I would bin the woodies but only because they can deform so easily with moisture, heat and such like. Im not sure where you can get GCT blades from now but they are very good and cheap too

[trillian]

Another really good blade that has been on sale for a while is the TT black and white carbons made by BBT. But I am only seeing the 600s. A few shops have them around £30.00 and sometimes cheaper if you buy two pairs!

[Pabs]

Thanks for the reply. Had a quick look and they seem a) very hard to source (only mikes models appear to list them, and not in the size I require) and they look like they are about £40 a set. That doesn't sound too bad but it's still considerably more than woodies.

[Pabs]

Thanks Trillian - sounds good, but again look like they are hard to source?

[jimmyhorns]

Ive tried these, and really like them, and for £30 are not bad at all

600 Main blades CFK TT type BB3698-6020T / trex 600 / Blades - ALIGN-TREX.co.uk RC Model Helicopter Specialists in ALIGN, E-Flight, Blade, Goblin, Synergy, ALeeS, Outrage, ELY-Q

As soon as I was past the hover stage, I thought about changing from woodies, as I worried about them disintergrating mid flight.

Here is a flight on woodies though, which they seemed to manage with no real issues:, skip forward to 1:50

[WildWake]

What blades for a beginner & scale / sport flying - wood, carbon or glass fibre?

I'm using 600mm thunder tiger blades from midland on my Trex 600 nitro, think they are about £30.
They out fly anything I can do.

[Pabs]

Thanks

I've also seen some Ripmax GRP blades for about £25 - I actually think the ones I have may be the same as these...

[trillian]

Thanks Trillian - sounds good, but again look like they are hard to source?

In addition to Align-Trex I know Midlands had a similar deal on them recently. I have had the 550s, 600s and 710s but I never see the 550s anymore.

[Pabs]

Looks like FL do the ripmax in both sizes I'd need (although not in stock atm) - but like you've said 550's in the BBT do appear to be non-existent anymore

[scuba steve]

if your woodies are working well (track accurately and cause no excessive vibration) and your happy then just keep them, just check them regularly for possible faults. i learnt the basics on a 450 with woodies and never had a failure in hundreds of flights. once i moved onto to very basic 3D i upgraded to CF blades and now run these on my 600n :

600 twin pack Main blades CFK TT Type / trex 600 / Blades - ALIGN-TREX.co.uk RC Model Helicopter Specialists in ALIGN, E-Flight, Blade, Goblin, Synergy, ALeeS, Outrage, ELY-Q

they will not win any beauty contests or turn heads down at the club but for £27.50 a pair they are excellent

[jimmyhorns]

looks like we are all running the same TT blades

Though I have to say, it was Trillian who pointed me to them in the first place

[Pabs]

What blades for a beginner & scale / sport flying - wood, carbon or glass fibre?

Ok thanks folks - ill see how the woodies look next time I get them out and if all is ok I will leave as is, but am ready to swap with those blades above as soon as I need/can.
Thx!

[BenScoobert]

As per title really,

I'm currently flying my nitro's (see sig) with woodies as I don't feel that I need anything more seeing as I'll probably be breaking them and they are much cheaper, but I wanted to see whether people thought I was doing the right thing. I'm never going to be doing 3D, and probably still only basic manoevers for the next year or so. (depending on how much time I get behind the tx)

I do have some cheap glass fibre blades, but I hear bad things about the cheaper end of CF/GF blades so am not sure if I want to use them.
A lot of local flyers have told me I shouldn't be using wood blades at all... as they are only rated to a fairly low RPM - but wooden blades have NEVER caused me a problem.

If you think I should bin the woodies altogether - please suggest the best BUDGET blades for 30 & 50 size nitro models - I don't want to be spending big £££ while learning.
Thx

I had woodies shoot off my 450 just after take off, root worn after 1 flight, be careful

[trillian]

I had woodies shoot off my 450 just after take off, root worn after 1 flight, be careful

Yeah woodies on a 450 must be kept at headspeeds lower than most 450s are happy with these days. The Thunder Tiger woodies in 550mm and 600mm are OK so long as the plastic root pieces are epoxied on per the instructions (and there's prob something about the max headspeed on them).

I have seen a GRP blade pull out at the root on a 450 sport in flight. It sounded almost like a gunshot and the main shaft was bent nearly 45 degrees!