Blade Failure or Normal ?

[hoveringal]

Hello guys,

Flamewheel 450 Quad with stock DJI 2212 motors and stock 30 Amp ESC's - blades making weird noise in hover but that just may be normal. Conducted a post flight inspection and noticed all four blades had the similar missing chip from blade root area. Blades have approx 10 flights or so with no crashes. I try and flex the blade & hub while watching the chips and they seem to be superficial. These are the EPP 10/45 GF blades - I know they are inexpensive but appeared "better" than the failing DJI prop's. I suspect these are Gem Fam blades since they have the initials GF. Does this look about right and what may cause this?? I think I may ground the craft till I determine if these blades are safe and if not, which ones would be better suited. The Quad is carrying a Go-Pro camera too..

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[kloner]

when they make plastic stuff it's liquid and ran through molds of hundreds of the same thing all connected to let the plastic through and there all connected. When they break em apart that's the place they do it.... not a problem. props like APC and graupner has a real smooth area there. Gemfan looks like what you got there

the noise it is making when it makes a hover should sound different than even a drifting hover. They buzz when there on a perfect hover. If your still concerned make us a movie of it doing it

 

[hoveringal]

The weird noise I believe was caused by higher wind conditions today - which I typically avoid flying in those conditions. I saw no vibrations and the control surfaces were positive. Kloner, I appreciate you words of advise. Each blade "looks" as if they have as plit too however I believe this is normal during manufactoring.

 

[kloner]

yes, that does it to. Those sloflyer props are just noisy as a rule but especially in wind. That split should be a seam where the mold comes together. if it is split, that is a major problem. with if you can lightly "bend" the prop to cause stress in the crack/seam area and it gets bigger, that's a definate no fly. They all have it there

 

[hoveringal]

I just read some posts and think I might upgrade from the EPP style blades to the APC blades. I understand they are a bit stiffer and react quick making the GPS a bit touchy. My GPS is not dialed in that tight (yet) so a little drifting or vertical action is not an issue at the moment. All reports so far indicate the APC wont snap in flight.

 

[kloner]

used APC a long time and never had a problem

 

[Dewster]

Yes...switch to APC or Graupner blades. I had a Gemfan full carbon fiber blade snap with less than 5 minutes flight time and wrecked my hexa. The props may be the cheapest part of a muti-rotor, but can cost you thousands if they break. Invest wisely.

 

[Leslie LP]

I had an F550 fly away on me only to locate it after a 45min search. I lost flight control and RTH did not respond. I made sure to look to what direction it was flying and did notice that I had no blade rotation on #6. I cannot say for sure if the stock 8" blade was on at the time. When I did recover my destroyed F550 that motor was missing the pro. Of the 5 motors I did recover, (the 6th is up in a tree with partial prop still attached) only one had the prop attached but had broken free. There were only 3 of the prop screwdowns on the 5 I did recover. The blades I did recover were sheared off at the edges one was badly bent. I can only find 5 of the 6 props so it is possible that my fly away was due to a broken blade that somehow flew off. I guess it makes sense to pick up some Graupners asap.