SAB 320mm blades

My thanks to MotorsandRotors for the supply of the blades for this review.

SAB have just released two different sets of carbon blades for the T-rex, one set is 305mm in length, the other 320mm.
The details of the blades on test in this review are as follows :

Shape : symmetrical
Length : 320mm
Width : 34mm
Weight : 42g / set

The SAB 320mm blades are very nicely made and very similar in look and feel to their much larger nitro equivalents. The blades are carbon fiber throughout with a white coating for most of the blade. This is very much my favourite colouring for blades as it is highly visible in flight.

The blade root holes for the blade bolts contains a brass bushing very similar to the Align wooden and carbon blades and adequately reinforces this area for the higher headspeed that these blades will run.

First task was to balance the blades, which actually proved unnecessary, they were spot on. Just for reference I took a picture of the SAB blades compared to their equivalent rivals :

Overall the blades are extremely well made and my set were certainly well matched for weight and CofG. The price is higher than the Align Carbon blades but these are solid carbon fiber rather than a mixture of carbon fiber and plastic. They also look and feel like a better manufactured blade.

With a length of 320mm it probably isn't wise to run these on a stock boom but SAB produce a smaller version of these at 305mm for just that purpose. I may also review these at a later date.

Initial Flight Testing

Having fitted the blades I went for an initial test hop to check tracking and generally set up the machine for these blades. They tracked spot on right from the word go and required no alterations at all. In the hover they felt reasonably stable, more so than the stock wooden blades but perhaps slightly less than the Align Carbon blades. Given that they are 7g per blade lighter than the Align Carbons this is exactly as expected.

Standard and Aerobatic Flight Testing

In forward flight these blades are every bit as stable as the Align carbon blades and feel very smooth and comfortable. Power is identical to the Align Carbon Blades although the motor didn't seem to be straining as hard to produce that power. Climbouts were strong and predictable with very good vertical performance. Fast circuits and transitions to hover were also very nice and comfortable with not too much twitchiness. I do like these blades very much!

Having done the usual circuits and climbs I decided to wring them out properly with some loops, rolls and flips. Roll rate is pretty good in comparison to the Align Carbon blades but not as fast as I would like, I may need to adjust my cyclic throws to get a bit more pitch into the paddles. Loops were very nice, pulling strongly and predictably throughout. Rolls as I said earlier were a little slow and required more control inputs to execute nicely. Vertical flips were fairly easy to do but I got out of shape a couple of times, pilot induced than anything to do with the blades. I haven't fully got used to the speed things happen on micros so flights can at times get a bit erratic when compared to how I fly my Raptor 50, which led to the next event.

Unfortunately at this point I got a bit too over excited and tragedy struck, the resultant mess included a broken set of SAB blades and an end to my flight experiences with these blades. However I had got enough from the flight to have a good understanding of their capabilities. I'm sure I'll be getting another set of these and perhaps be a little more careful next time :(

Conclusion

Need I write more?
Lets just say these are the only blades I'll be flying in future until I test something better. Flight characteristics were superb, power was excellent, unfortunately I didn't get to amp test them but I'll do this at some point in the future. These are more expensive than the Align Carbons but for the competent flier looking for a good blade I haven't (yet) tested anything better.

There are now a number of carbon blades available for the T-Rex, including some from MAH and various incarnations from the East, I will be testing them in due course but for the moment I can't think of a reason to fly another blade unless you are crashing a lot and don't want to bear the expense of replacing carbon blades on a regular basis.