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Draganflyer II,III,IV - Replacement Rotors? Alternative source?

Has anybody out there found a suitable replacement rotor blade for the Draganflyer... or maybe an alternate source for the blades?

Anybody that owns a Draganflyer knows how fragile the blades can be. They tear quite easily. I discovered another flaw with the rotors this evening. They get pretty damn stiff in cold weather! I was flying mine today (outside temperature 38 F, not all that cold). At only 2 feet off the ground the ship tipped forward on takeoff (my fault), and dove into the lawn. Bang, swish, zing... shards of rotor blades flying thru the air... a four "shattered" like glass! Guess the Draganflyer is better suited for warm weather flying where the rotors at least have a tendency to bend.

Owning a Draganflyer reminds me of owning an inkjet printer. You get past the purchase price of the printer only to go into debt buying the outrageously expensive ink cartridges. Same scenario with the Draganflyer and their proprietary replacement rotors. At almost $10 per rotor (factoring in the shipping from Canada), the replacement rotors are gonna send me to the poor farm. With my other helis I can at least surf the net and pick from a multitude of sources for replacement parts "and" rotors. (i.e., shop for the best price)

The larger Draganflyer Xpro model has high impact carbon fiber blades. Yes, I would expect the carbon fiber blades to cost even more, but I'd be willing to pay the price figuring they would at least be more durable. But, Draganflyer Inc doesn't make the carbon blades for any other model other than the XPro. Ironically, per a Draganflyer representative, they don't offer carbon blades for the Draganflyers I,II,III,IV due to liabilty issues. What???

They offer carbon fiber blades for a the Xpro, a helicoper 3 times the size of the Draganflyer IV, that could easily inflict three times the bodily injury if crashed into a crowd, but not for the little Draganflyers. Personally, I think the liability statement is a marketing ploy. Fact: They sell a ton more of the IV's than the Xpro... and... they have control the only market on replacement blades. "As long as people keep replacing these cheap plastic blades in large numbers at $40 a set... why offer them more durable blade and take the chance of killing our cash cow?

Elton

Reply to
eltonnoway
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They sell carbon rotor blades for the X-Pro because it is a tool, not a toy, but intended for use by police, construction companies, whatever. As such the liability is far less. At USD $5000.00 nobody in their right mind is going to buy an X-Pro for fun when a regular chopper can outfly it any day for way less dough. We have one here at our factory, and it is as hazardous as a regular chopper, maybe more so the way I fly ;-). It has a huge footprint too - 44" tip to tip. Lots of opportunity to break something

The regular DF series are sold as toy/hobby item, as evidenced by their website "rctoys'. Thus they are in a much greater liability situation. I can understand this totally. There's likely a bunch of them out there owned by complete newbies.

Secondly, the DFIV is also likely to be flown indoors for fun, further increasing the risk.

However, all that said, yeah the DFIV blades are really fragile, and expensive to replace, and they are indeed a pain in the ass because of that. I've gone through a few already. The problem with looking for an alternate source is that you need two CW pitch, and two CCW pitch. Good luck trying to find matching sets of lightweight reverse pitch props/rotors suitable for the DF - nobody makes them because there is no need for them. Electric motors are reversible, thus the problem does not exist in the market that would justify the development and production of such an item. It would be nice if we could buy two APC slowflyer props and their matching reverse pitch counterpart to retrofit the DF, but it ain't going to happen.

Mike D.

Reply to
Mike Dennett

Wonder if the blades for the Shogun are as breakable?

Morris

Reply to
Morris Lee

UPDATE: In Googling all the available newsgroups, I stumbled across this source for Draganflyer rotors.

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(a New York based company)

Shipping a set of rotors from Airdyn (in the US) will save you 10 bucks right up front, and even more when you factor in postage. A set of four (4) rotors from Draganflyer Inc (less the decals) will cost you $39.85 (with their cheapest shipping option). The same set of four from Airdyn (less decals) and with shipping will only cost you $24.00... a savings of $15.85! However the really big savings occurs when you get three (3) complete sets. You save over $30! The only possible downside (if it really matters), is Airdyn does not offer the rotor decal set. Personally... I leave three of the rotors stock white and use a permanent colored marker to stripe both the upper and lower sides of the front rotor. Works great.

When it comes to the Draganflyer rotors, what really bites (besides their fragile nature) is the shipping charge. (from either location) Draganflyers cheapest shipping option is $9.95 for a set of four. Airdyn charges $5.00. Just for grins I bubble wrapped a set of four and took them to the post office. Although I didn't actually ship them... I addressed them from for a cross country trip (North Carolina to by brother in Oakland California) First class postage was 60 cents! Hmmm... Airdyn, New York to NC, charges $5.00. Just like eBay, set a lower price to suck you in then rape you on the shipping. Oh well...I'll write the $4.40 off as a handling charge.

To reduce the possibility of anyone flaming me, I realize I have little room to complain when comparing my $40 repair cost to that of plowing a

50 or 60 nitro into the landscape. $40 bucks sounds a whole lot better than $600 - $1000. :-\

BTW, thanks to another post I found, I experimented with repairing rotor tears with CA. Then in happened... BRAIN FLASH!!! Holy crap! Why not splice the rotors? Yep! I found I can make one good rotor out of two broken ones. (Providing they're both the CW or CCW pitch)

Anyway, in looking at my collection of broken rotors, I noticed that none of them broke above the above the hub attachment holes. All I had to do was make a clean cut across the blade just below the attachment holes to sever the broken half of the rotor. I then take another broken rotor and cut off its broken half just below its attachment holes. Then simply take the two good halves, apply a little CA, align the attachment holes and bingo... a new blade! 1) The screw holes keep the two halves perfectly aligned while gluing 2) The cut and splice does not effect balance because the overlapped glue joint is at the hub directly above the motor. I now have two of these spliced blades on my Draganflyer and they work perfectly!

NET: Don't throw away your broken blades!. Better yet... send them to me ;-)

Elton

Reply to
eltonnoway

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