Fleck / Vortech blades

[jdalexa]

Who out there is flying with the Fleck (now Vortech??) blades? What are your experience with them?

[GyroRon]

Brent Brown has a set.

[mark treidel]

Lots of stored energy/inertia due to their weight (2.68#/ft). Very forgiving & almost impossible to flap due to their rigid nature. They hardly droop without support but they do create more drag since they have an 8" chord. Also a nice add on is the ground adjustable pitch block. Pitch adjustment is very touchy though & needs to be set carefully with a digital level.

[jdalexa]

I had heard there was some problems early on with strap holes becoming elongated very quickly. Don't know if this has been fixed.

[Brent_Brown]

I have mine in a shywheel 5' hub bar. If some of the bolts are through the 6061 spar, as they should be. I don't see how they elongated. I have 100+ hours on them. I like mine but now that the price is as high as DWs. It is no longer a deal.

[Mike Schallmann]

I flew Fleck Blade for six years and found them to be exceptional Blades--I used a McCutchen Hub and NEVER had any problems with them. Elongated Blade holes in my opinion is a myth --or improperly setup --I passed two bolts through the LE spar as well as the four bolts through the 30% Chord line there was never any elongation. The price of the bladfes is getting a little ridiculous as you can get Rotordynes -with a hub bar for about what you pay for the blades only from Vortec --I still reccommend them as they never caused me any problems --cost wise they are no deal now -- At El Mirage I checked out the Rotordynes and I think I'll go with them on the rebuild of my gyro --

[jdalexa]

Thanks for the information all. The issue with elongation of strap holes is from back a while.

Larry Neal is putting them on the Golden Butterfly now and new PRA5 member Carl Marburger just bought a Golden Butterfly. I'm really looking forward to flying it. Construction photos will be showing up very soon.

[Brent_Brown]

Interesting Fleck blades on the GB.