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| My thanks to wattsuprc.com.au for the supply of the blades for this review. Align recently released their wood compound 325 Pro blades, billed as highly stiff and rigid wood compound but no mention of what they are suitable for, so there's the first objective for the review..... Shape : symmetrical Length : 325mm Width : 32mm Weight : 40g / set |
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| The Align 325 pro blades are a wood compound composite material. They are
gray in colour which is different. The blade roots are plastic holders
around the wood blade itself. No brass bushings or similar for strength
in the blade root hole, the plastic supplying the strength for the blade
root. I also couldn't find any recommendations for maximum rotor speed,
so in this test it will get the standard 2850 RPM I run on my 4S T-Rex. Fit and finish of the blades is very nice, with smooth lines and no way of visibly telling that they are wood. In fact initially I thought they were carbon (must learn to read the instructions). Blade stiffness longitudinally is very good for a wood blade but more flexible than carbon, although I have come across carbon blades that the less stiff than these. Chordwise stiffness is not so good with quite a lot of flex. I checked blade balance and it was very very close, so they were bolted to the head and the addition of tracking tape was enough to have them spot on. Here are a few pictures of the blades followed by the flight experience and summary.... |
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| Flight Testing Having already tested these blades once and then discovering a fault on one of the blade grips it was time to test them again. Hopefully the test results would be more favorable now that the blade grip problem (that coloured the first test) was resolved. Conditions were not favorable for blade testing as temperatures with windchill were close to freezing and the wind was blowing at a steady 15 mph with gusts to 20 mph. Despite anything else this flight would be interesting just because of the cold and wind. I had predicted particularly cold weather before travelling to the field and had already warmed packs to help combat bad performance due to the cold temperatures. The first job was to get the tracking right. Initial tests showed that one blade was flying about half an inch higher than the other. I adjusted one of the links that goes from the swashplate to the flybar mixer in order to correct this. Having made this correction I was very pleased to see the blades track correctly. I could now move onto how the blades perform in flight. With the conditions getting worse in terms of wind strength the flight would be limited to loops, rolls and some low-level flips. I also did some high-power climbs and descents to get a feel for the power in these blades. With the T-Rex in a steady hover I opened the throttle wide and accelerated into a fast circuit. The initial climb out was quite strong and there was no noticeable change in track of the blades and a good level of stability in the circuit. The initial climb was not as snappy as one might expect from a good set of carbon blades but it was very respectable for a set of wooden blades. With the T-Rex in fast circuit I decided to just try some tight turns and sudden cyclic movements to see how the blades would react. Response was very fast, in fact faster than I am used to with heavier carbon blades. There was a little blade noise in the tight turns but nothing of concern. Having taken note of the faster response on these blades I next tried an into wind roll. Unsurprisingly for this level of wind I did lose most of my forward speed in the roll but the roll itself was extremely quick. Following this roll I tried a loop and again response was fast and the loop was quite tight. Although much of this was caused by the quite strong headwind. Coming down lower I tried some stationary flips and again was rewarded with some quite fast flips, quicker than I am used to using heavier carbon blades. Throughout all these moves the blades stayed in track and did not exhibit any untoward characteristics. This confirmed to me that the earlier blade tests were significantly affected by the problem with the blade grip. In general these blades are faster to react to cyclic commands than carbon blades. However, this also translates into a slightly less locked in feel to the overall flight characteristics. The T-Rex feels lighter on its feet and is more prone to buffeting in the wind. In general the whole machine felt slightly less stable than with carbon blades, which is only to be expected as these blades are significantly lighter. Conclusion In contrast to my previous review of these blades I have to say that Align have finally produced a set of blades that I actually like. Although I like them for more reasons than just their flight performance. The flight performance itself is good and in fact far better than I was expecting for a set of wood blades. My reasons for liking the blades is that they give close to carbon performance at an extremely attractive price. I still prefer carbon blades for that locked in and predictable feeling they give but for practising new 3-D moves I might well have found an alternative. I ran these blades at over 2800 rpm which for wood blades is unheard-of. I was expecting that this level of rpm would cause problems for a wood blade but was pleasantly surprised to be proved wrong. The general flight characteristics are less stable than one might expect with heavier carbon blades but in lighter winds I would probably have been less concerned. Given all of the above I can only highly recommend these blades as they provide great performance at a very modest price. Certainly for practising new moves I would consider using these blades as they would prove much more cost-effective in the event of a crash but at very little expense in terms of performance. If you have these blades rate them using the TrexTuning rating system....... |
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