600 NHP Blades

[danhampson]

After a recent crash, while ordering my parts i thought that i would try some NHP blades, the few reviews and videos of flights that i found on the net were all good and the price of them sealed the deal (£36/$62 for 556mm mains, £10/$17 for 95mm tails).

I ordered the tail blades first (larger than stock) for my low head speed experiment they arrived in a plastic bag with some instructions.

View attachment 12277

here is a comparison of the two brands.

View attachment 12278

I was flying the NHP tails when i crashed, the tail authority was vastly improved to the point i was going to turn the gyro gain down for the low head speed setup. I didn't get chance to fly them with 6s so i don't know what difference they will make at normal head speed.

While ordering the crash parts i ordered a set of the 550mm main blades,just to try. But today while i was inspecting the align blades that were on when i crashed i found that the trailing edge of one of the blades had a small amount of
de-lamination (luck i ordered the NHP) so it went in the bin (trash).
Again they came with a instruction sheet, if you can call it that.





comparison




because the blades are gel coat free there are some minor imperfections to the surface where the pre-preg has left a tiny void on the weave. They say this doesn't affect the flight characteristics of the blades, and apparently Nick Maxwell's Helix blades are the same (no gel coat)




comparison of tip shape and extra length (a bolt is through both blade bolt holes in the image).




Stats

	Align	NHP
Length	550mm	556mm
Chord	50mm	50.02mm
Weight	116g	133g

Overall Im impressed with the look and feel of them, the weight and CG was perfect. the only downside I can see is that they are all black which will make them hard to see, so I have ordered some iridescent sticky back plastic to stick on for visibility.

 

[Graham Lawrie]

I am on my second set Dan after my crash I love them, but like you said they are hard to see when at full speed On payday I am ordering a spare set

 

[danhampson]

Ive had a chance to hover them this afternoon they seem ok, im going to go out in the morning and fly them. There were too many people about this afternoon for anything more than a hover.

heres a couple of shots of the stickers i put on them. it was a dull day today and they are very visible, in the air they are silver/white and should look really good and bright on a bright day





I will post a maiden video in my 550 video thread.

 

[Slobberdog]

I like the taping Dan it will be interesting to see what it looks like on video,

 

[Graham Lawrie]

Will the tape affect the balance? They are pre-balanced I checked mine and they are well balanced. I suppose if its the same both sides probably not

 

[danhampson]

When i first thought of the stickers i didn't know that the blades were going to be so well balanced out of the box so the idea was to balance and CG the blades with the shiny tape.

I measured the tape positions from the bolt holes (It was a PITA getting the measurements right) to ensure that they are in the exact same position on both blades, I did this because all balance and CG is done using the bolt hole as the reference point and i thought it would give continuity between the pairs of blades, I then checked CG and balance. The CG of both blades still matches (but has moved outwards a bit) and the balance is spot on.

As long as the lengths of tape are cut exactly the same width it shouldn't really matter. And the beauty of the tape is you can use any colour you can get hold of.

 

[Graham Lawrie]

Thought it would be that way Flew my 550 tonight briefly. .....midges a nightmare but it flew well