NHP Razor Pro 515 Carbon Blades

Over the last few months I have been testing several different types of blades from different manufacturers. This review is the second of several looking at the merits of different carbon blades and their flight characteristics when coupled with the Swift.

The blades in question for this review are the NHP 515 mm carbon blades (straight tip). My thanks to Skyline Models for the supply of these blades. These are a full 3-D blade. These blades are 515 mm from the tip of the blade to the hole in the blade root. They are a full symmetrical section and therefore will provide the same performance inverted (as is normal for 3-D blades). The blades are nicely finished, with a glossy carbon fibre weave. This is a departure from the usual NHP Razor Pro blades which had a black matte finish. These blades are straight tipped. This effectively means that the blade has been cut straight across at the tip.

The blades have a blade depth of 12/14mm. This means for The Swift you do not need to fit blade spacers. The blades come with either a 3 mm or 4 mm bolt hole.

 

Construction

The blades are nicely finished. The carbon weave pattern going right to the edge of the blades. All of the edges are nice and crisp with no roughness or untidy finishing, except for the tips where the blade has just been cut at 90 degrees leaving an unfinished (non glossy) look on the blade tip. The blade section is really quite thick and there use significant curve to the aerofoil. When looking at them in your hands they come across as a very solid and strong blade.

As most people will know the key to a good blade is both longitudinal and chordwise stiffness. These blades are very stiff from a chordwise perspective. Longitudinally they are also very stiff with quite some effort required in order to bend them. The blades did not require any balancing and were very well matched (as one would expect from a quality blade).

These blades being quite thick and with a fairly chunky blade root are a reasonable weight for a carbon blade. My expectation with these is a stable and locked in flight characteristic but potentially with reduced cyclic speed.

Flight Testing

Lifting off into the hover I was very pleased to see the blades tracking perfectly. In the hover these blades feel quite stable and there is no tendency to wander off. This is in keeping with my expectations having examined the blades before flight.

Moving into forward flight these blades retain their stable and surefooted characteristics. Certainly the Swift felt extremely comfortable just cruising around on these blades. A sports flyer would definitely find these blades very comfortable to use.

Pushing on into flips, rolls, loops and stall turns the blades whilst responsive were also very surefooted and forgiving. These are definitely a good blade for learning 3-D as the cyclic response is not blisteringly fast but fast enough for learning new manoeuvres. Collective response on these blades is excellent and autorotation performance was also very good. Certainly there was enough inertia left for some hang time at the end of the auto.

Conclusion

I have tried several carbon blades on the Swift and these are one of my favourites. The reason being that they are extremely surefooted and forgiving when learning new manoeuvres. Cyclic response is fast enough for some nice 3-D but not so fast that the model starts to feel unstable or fidgety. With collective response and autorotation capability also very good these are an all-round blade.

These blades are not aimed purely at the 3-D fanatic. I would be happy to recommend these blades for a beginner pilot right through to one starting on learning new 3-D manoeuvres. This is a blade for pilots who like nice smooth manoeuvres, they excel in this area.