Now to the rotor blades for my KB-3

[samouced]

I have KB all aluminum rotor blades SN#1387/1388 (built 1997). With the teeter bar, they are 22'. I am talking with Gyro Technic about some 23' Razor Blades.

Doing some math with aircraft and pilot weight, arrive at 510 lbs. For the 22' blades, disk loading is 1.34#/ft^2. The 23' blades, disk loading is 1.22#/ft^2.

I have not even removed the blades from the box to examine them. They have ~140 hours on them as they are the second set my dad purchased as he crashed the first set.

Opinions on dropping $2650 on Razor Blades. The teeter block tower height may have to be changed to work with the KB3 rotor head.

 

[MikeBoyette]

In my opinion this decision should be considered based on your experience flying gyros? If you are new to gyros you may be best served to use the Brock blades to learn on as they are more forgiving.

 

[samouced]

In my opinion this decision should be considered based on your experience flying gyros? If you are new to gyros you may be best served to use the Brock blades to learn on as they are more forgiving.

As I have .5 hours in a tandem gyro, this is great advice. I will unpack the KB blades this week to take a hard look at them.

 

[Mayfield]

In my opinion this decision should be considered based on your experience flying gyros? If you are new to gyros you may be best served to use the Brock blades to learn on as they are more forgiving.

Mike is right. It would be hard to find blades more forgiving than the Brocks or Bensens. They hand start easily and can be very smooth. If they are in good mechanical condition, they would be ideal for something like a KB3

Jim

 

[samouced]

KB blades look great. It it turns out, they are 24’ long. Blades are 118 1/8”, teeter bar is 48”.

 

[Loren Jones]

I can't speak to comparing them but I can say the Razor Blades are every bit the work of art that is everything Denis creates. I got to watch him do the preliminary balancing on my blades last week. They were close on the first run right out of the box, but a tiny tweak by Denis and they appeared near perfect. I have a video I'll post to YT soon. That said, I'd be hard pressed not to use what's already in house first and see how it goes.

 

[Mayfield]

KB blades look great. It it turns out, they are 24’ long. Blades are 118 1/8”, teeter bar is 48”.

One thing we've touched upon but not explicitly stated is the very low RRPM your Brock blades will begin to autorotate at.

Being so easy to start is a tremendous advantage early in your gyro flying experience.

I have flown many makes of blades. With your aircraft, with the installed power plant, you would be hard pressed to tell the difference between your Brock/Bensen blades and others.

I don't know all the players here but I think I would PM Dave Bacon and pick his brain. Your KB should be very docile and at the same time very nimble and a lot of fun.

Jim

 

[samouced]

One thing we've touched upon but not explicitly stated is the very low RRPM your Brock blades will begin to autorotate at.

Being so easy to start is a tremendous advantage early in your gyro flying experience.

I have flown many makes of blades. With your aircraft, with the installed power plant, you would be hard pressed to tell the difference between your Brock/Bensen blades and others.

I don't know all the players here but I think I would PM Dave Bacon and pick his brain. Your KB should be very docile and at the same time very nimble and a lot of fun.

Jim

Thank you Jim.