How do you protect your blades ?

[Victor Duarte]

hello all,
yesterday i went to my airborne to see what s going on, i found and instructor with a two seat Magni, superb, but i had a close look at the blades and found them very eroded in the outer half, with some minor impacts.

my question is : do you use tape to protect the trailing edge ? i know it s good for sand particles but not very suitable for rain drops..

how do you proceed ?

thank you

[Caribean_gyro]

normally a lot of nick are cause moving the machine inside of a hangar. also haevy blades have to be hld with joits to prevent cracks if they are composite. I take them down every 6month fix any crak paint sand polish balance and track. A nightmare but makes me feel better in the air.
Chuck

[scottessex]

I chain the dog to the gyro to protect my blades!

I am going to make some sleeves to put over the blades. Like a padded vinyl or naugahyde type blade cover for keeping them from getting dinged, and keep bird poop off.

[Victor Duarte]

than you chuck , well i think it s a must do .;)

the nick i saw was really an impact (painted and repaired , ok) and the erosion was really visible (the grey gelcoat and the epoxy appearing), i know that this erosion highly degrades the blade performance, and i think its a pity to not protect them on a such expensive machine , and mainly if he does training :eek:

you think no one of you put tape on the leading edge ?

thanks chuck

edit : for sctott

personnally i would chain my mother to it, that is much more efficient :D :D

i m talking about in-flight protection, not on the ground, my ex GF 's father owned 5 bell 47 and all the blades had tape on the leading edge

friendly

[scottessex]

Did he use a stainless steel tape, like on a propeller?

I just bought a set of Dragon wings, but I am going to make sure I protect them on the ground as well.

[Victor Duarte]

no he used a transparent plastic tape, i cant tell you what grade but its strong, not the common tape you find in shops :D, polyethylene perhaps, the B47 have a inox leading edge. but inox erodes with sand dust so he had to protect them (he was a crop sprayer, sos, lots of dust)
he also had a jet ranger and also protected the leading edge..

i does appear to me like a cheap way to prevent erosion...
excuse me scott i cant give you the good type of tape he used...

thanks

[Chopper Reid]

What do you guys use to repair the damaged leading edge ? I just recently bought a set of "glass rotors" and I'm very dissapointed in the spots on the leading edge coming away after flying in light rain.

[Aussie_Paul]

The Raf painted composite blades were terrible in rain. We used to use a stainless stell tape availible from a mail order company in the US. We only put it on the last 2' od the blade. If the full length of the bade was taped the tape would wrinkle due to blade flexing.
The gelcoated composite blades are the best, like the McCuchens and Revolution Rotors.
If people want I can look in the "guts" of my pc and see if it is still burried in there!!!!

Aussie Paul.:)

[birdy]

I did the same to my old RAF blades too paul,it definatly made a difference. :)


But if you fly EXTR ALOY blades,you don't have such problems. ;) :D

[Aussie_Paul]

No, that is right Birdy, but you have to put up with the lack of perfromance!!!!!!!!!

Aussie Paul. :)

[Caribean_gyro]

Composite blades need too much care. I have to hold mine very time I keep my gyro stored. SO they dont flex and create cracks or blisters. then every 3 month I have to take them down, check them paint and polish etc.

I am planning to take them down in thankgsgivving and sand them balance and repaint them. Since I have not hit the lotto yet I can not buy a sport copter ones.

chuck

[birdy]

Hmmm............... I know a bloke thats flowen both types Paul,on his mustering machine ,and he reckons they both have some plusses and minesses.But he prefers the alloy ones coz of the more rugged material.Performance wize,he said they are different but equal overall,but feels safer with alloy coz they can take more flogg'n.

I can't argue ether way coz I'v only flown RAF composite blades,which were crap,so I'll take his word for gosple.After all,he's do'n wot I'm do'n,and he'd know wot I need.

[Chopper Reid]

I have tried both types of blades and had to go back to the alloy blades. The composite blades were very smooth [Patroney 27 ft 6 in tapered and twisted] and were wonderfull in strong winds and cool weather but I found the wouldnt perform when it got hot [40 c plus ] and they were also difficult to stop and get going again when the wind got up around 25 plus knots. I might add that the composite blades performed really well when I got down to half fuel load and less. The gyro flew faster with them and probably handled a bit better. The leading edge is a real worry on the composite blades where as the alloys are as tough as nails and behave beautifully when starting and stopping them in any strength wind.
I have been flying on the alloys again for the last few days and the conditions have been pretty hot and they have done the job well. :)

[birdy]

Question to anyone,
Could the tempreture of the blade compared to the air have a bearing on their performance or efficiancy???

If your interested ,I reckon it dose,and have a theory as to why,but would like to hear some other oppinions.

[Aussie_Paul]

Brian, it sounds to me that an extra 6" or a foot in diameter would make the composite blades perfect for your machine.

What brand, diameter and chord are the alloy ones?

Is the amount of teeter the same with each set of blades? I am having difficulty at the moment starting and stopping the 30' patroney blades that are the same design as yours on a windy day. My problem is that the towers that I am using only allow 11 degrees of teeter. The amount of teeter really changes the way the blades behave in relation to the teeter stops while at low rrpm. They run out off teeter and hit the stops earlier.
===================================

Birdy, never thought about heat, we don't have much of that down here!!!! :D

I would be interested in your thoughts though. Are you saying that you think the alloy blades run at a different temperature to the composite ones in the same ambient air temperature?

I can imagine, and I have no idea why, that if the blades were kept colder, by some means, that there will probably be some change in the aerodynamic behaviour of the air passing over the blade, compared to the blade being heated by some means, but I would not be smart enough to work through that!!!

Aussie Paul. :)

[Chopper Reid]

Paul, My alloy blades are Ricks 27 ft blades, not sure about the chord. Never have any problem stopping them in any sort of wind but the Patroney blades are very hard to stop. I'm pleased you have problems with stopping yours :) . I use the same teeter for both types of blades. The electric prerotator is too close to use any less teeter than I currently have . I took to finding an area that sloped downwards that faced into the wind and that helped the situation but its hard finding a spot to suit !
I did have a set of Patroney 28 ft's but they shook really bad but they did feel as they had plenty of lift. Its a long story why I havent still got them. :mad:
I would like to try a set of alloy 28's as the 27's dont give me the lift I need some times.