Main Rotor

[nic]

When hit by a flying pebble:

What is the chances of getting a notch in a CF re-inforced blades?
How about CG blades?

My woodies got a hole in it. (almost 1 cm)

[Art]

Nic...change the woodies....I inspect my blades after every flight...and make sure the blades are ok to fly....can't seem to forget the exploding bird in mid air....

[nic]

Already got a new set of woodies.

Just wondering if the CF and CG will be stronger to withstand such flying pebbles. Those places I flying now has tons of loose pebbles.

I was hovering at 2m that day.

[Art]

at the kid of speed the blades are spinning I really dun think they can withstand...well..better be safe than sorry

[nic]

So since I will be punching more holes in the blades, no point for me to switch to CF/CG blades until I start FF... that will be months away.

Arthur: thanks.

[Tele]

blast thoes dam rogue pebbles!!!!!

[Brandon Chng]

i did a little bit of research on this and found that at normal operating rpms, the blade tip speed is roughly 450km/h. i later found out, that in a bad tornado storm in the US, with wind speeds around 450km/h, a normal plastic drinking straw was found embedded 6inches into a tree. hard to imagine any kind of blades would withstand any kind of impacts.

[glenn cain]

oh that's a nice comparison. how the heck did the pebble fly in the first place?

[nic]

what else... small little pebbles get blown off by the wind generated during take off and landing. Though the pebble is small.. the damage is big.

[glenn cain]

gee why dun you juz get a flat board to fly off from?

[AstroBoy]

Glenn is right, i use a plywood base to take off in punggol. But not those 3mm thickness type , it's too light and it may flip if you're aggresive on take-off, find heavier plywood base, i'm sure you can find some lying around near waste bins of furniture factories near industrial parks.
Cheers