Century - Carbon Paddles

The following is a review of the Century hardened feathering spindle.

Overview

Century have released these carbon paddles as a direct replacement for the stock plastic paddles. Comparing these paddles to the stock part reveals that these are the same size and shape but just made out of carbon fibre rather than plastic.

Included with these paddles are a set of flybar weights. These can be positioned at the ends of the flybar for the most stability or close to the rotor head in order to increase agility and reduced stability. Given that the stock paddles are actually quite quick and responsive I decided to put the flybar weights at the outer edge of the flybar right up against the carbon paddles.

In-Flight

These paddles are identical to the stock paddles in shape and profile. They are lighter than the stock plastic paddles and therefore the flybar weights are included in order to allow the pilot some adjustment in the responsiveness of their Swift.

Having fitted please and put the flybar weights as close as possible to the paddles I set off to the field to test them out. Lifting up into the hover the paddles felt identical in responsiveness to the stock plastic paddles. Moving into circuits I had the same feelings. These paddles are not designed to radically change the flight characteristics of the Swift up by positioning the flybar weights be responsiveness can be changed.

Having had opportunity to push into 3-D flight there was one benefit with these carbon paddles over the stock plastic paddles that I was very glad to receive. I have always found the stock plastic paddles to have a certain pitchiness in the fast forward flight. To put that another way the helicopter would become oversensitive to elevator inputs during fast forward flight. These carbon paddles removed that tendency almost completely and left the Swift a far more predictable machine to fly in circuit and also for 3-D This one element alone was enough to justify upgrading in my view.

Conclusion

The stock Swift with stock paddles can be pitchy in forward flight. These new carbon paddles are identical in size and shape and give a very similar response to the stock paddle in terms of their responsiveness. However their big advantage is a more efficient aerofoil and therefore the oversensitivity in the elevator has been eliminated in fast forward flight. This one improvement makes these paddles a worthwhile investment. Should you wish to you can also move the flybar weights inwards or remove them completely in order to create a very fast reacting Swift.