chipped propellers: do you still use it?

[Aerial Gopher]

Sell them on Ebay as "B Grade" where buyer pays return shipping.

 

[Wombat55]

Sell them on Ebay as "B Grade" where buyer pays return shipping.

Do you really want to take the chance that doing that might come back and bite you if the guy gets into a big crash due to flawed propellers or even due to other causes but he blames the crash on you for selling him flawed propellers? Not worth the risk over $10 props IMHO.

 

[Aerial Gopher]

Do you really want to take the chance that doing that might come back and bite you if the guy gets into a big crash due to flawed propellers or even due to other causes but he blames the crash on you for selling him flawed propellers? Not worth the risk over $10 props IMHO.

Rhetorical joke, response was not expected. Did you by chance and up buying something that wasn't what it was supposed to be on ebay? That's a rhetorical joke too..

 

[X424]

Rhetorical joke, response was not expected. Did you by chance and up buying something that wasn't what it was supposed to be on ebay? That's a rhetorical joke too..

Wombat is a very serious individual mate. RC flying is no laughing matter.

 

[Wombat55]

Wombat is a very serious individual mate. RC flying is no laughing matter.

Nope, I don't take any chances on crashing my $1000 toy and am often amazed by the stories I read here.

 

[m0j0]

No ,, props are the cheapest replaceable part on the Mavic. When they appear to be damaged in any way toss them.

 

[Pahala Baringbing]

How if you chip all other blade in same size to keep the balance....?

 

[junyong]

I'd agree if you have new props just put those on and always keep some spares handy so you don't have any downtime if you need to fly. However, the Mavic will fly just fine with some small chips but at some point will introduce some level of vibration that likely won't affect flight at a perceivable level but may affect gimbal and image stabiliity if a particular motor speed(s) causes it to hit some resonance.

At the same time, I wouldn't necessarily chuck them, but that's me personally. I think we're all taking a little bit of risk every time we fly with something going wrong (perhaps due to something completely out of our control like a software glitch). A small chip on a blade would hardly register on my radar as a flight reliability issue, but rather one of potential image quality degradation. To be honest, it would take a quite a lot (such as a major crack running across the blade) to cause a catastrophic failure of the blade. If you have an already chipped blade, try breaking it completely at the damaged area and observe how much work was required and whether you think the Mavic could impose those same forces and cause them to break, even with millions of cycles. And hypothetically speaking, even then, it could still fly on the 7 other good blades. Again though, if you have the means to replace them I say why not. But I'll give you a scenario where it might be handy to keep them around.

Say you really need the Mavic for an important flight (or in my case a long trip) and the day before you're set to leave you fly it into a branch and chip a few props. You don't have enough spares and you couldn't order them to arrive fast enough. You could use these chipped ones and replace at the next best opportunity. In my instace, I took another step to repair the ones I had. I carefully cut pieces from one of the broken blades to match the chip of the one I wanted to repair and superglued and sanded it down. It worked flawlessly for the weeklong trip and I replaced them with new ones when I returned. You could accomplish the same thing with some 5-minute epoxy or similar. Now this wasn't a matter of being frugal, it was that I didn't have a better option. Use good judgment and err on the side of caution but just understand that there are varying degrees of risk and one man's perception of risky could be entirely within another man's comfort zone.

I'm a mechanical engineer with experience in this field so I'm not just speculating. Hope this helps some folks someday.

 

[stratos]

Just remember that the props is the only thing creating lift to your quad. Additonally those blades can spin very fast, a fracture can ocurr while in flight. Fly safe buddy better replace them

 

[Defens]

After I get a full set of chipped props (about every other flight), I take them in to my local tire store and have them spin balanced. They are usually able to fix any balance issues with no more than a couple ounces of wheel weights. I make them put an extra nylon Zip-tie on for backup, 'cause I don't trust the adhesive to hold the weights on once the props spool up to max speed.

 

[X424]

Just rmemeber that the props is the only thing creating lift to your quad. Additonally those blades can spin very fast, a fracture can acourr whike in flight. Fly safe buddy better replace them

Really?! It is the props creating the lift??? And here I was thinking it was the gimbal. *facepalm*

 

[Sal_recon26]

Instead of those fruity garden wind wheel things I just use my spare wreckage blades for my own super cool garden wind wheel things. I got about 50 of them in my front yard right now. the sound of all those mavic blades spinning in the wind help my sleep better... not to mention all the girls I'm scooping up. Scyooooooooop

 

[Sal_recon26]

Really?! It is the props creating the lift??? And here I was thinking it was the gimbal. *facepalm*

Well actually the inside cooling fan provides about .000032 percent of the total lift. Not to mention I saw a mavic pro skin that was said to increase lift about 13 percent.... I haven't tried it tho

 

[X424]

Well actually the inside cooling fan provides about .000032 percent of the total lift. Not to mention I saw a mavic pro skin that was said to increase lift about 13 percent.... I haven't tried it tho

Actually everything you've said here is true. Sorry I didn't mention those things earlier. I've also heard that flying with the gimbal protector on can add another 1 percent thanks to flat plate theory.

 

[Sal_recon26]

Actually everything you've said here is true. Sorry I didn't mention those things earlier. I've also heard that flying with the gimbal protector on can add another 1 percent thanks to flat plate theory.

It's ok man, just try to get ALL the facts first next time, but no harm no foul. YEA I've heard about the gimbal protector, although I usually leave it off tho since it effects some of the stunts I've been working on. Like yesterday I was doing a double back flip cookie driver into a side atmospheric rooster scoot, and it got so close to the ground after my maneuver that, had the gimbal protecter been installed, it would have caught the pavement and potentially hit the baby some lady was pushing around in her stroller.

 

[Sal_recon26]

And we all know how important babies are

 

[X424]

It's ok man, just try to get ALL the facts first next time, but no harm no foul. YEA I've heard about the gimbal protector, although I usually leave it off tho since it effects some of the stunts I've been working on. Like yesterday I was doing a double back flip cookie driver into a side atmospheric rooster scoot, and it got so close to the ground after my maneuver that, had the gimbal protected been installed, it would have caught the payment and potentially hit the baby some lady was pushing around in her stroller.

Oh snap, the side atmosphere rooster scoot! There are only two recorded attempts, neither of which ended well.

 

[Sal_recon26]

Oh snap, the side atmosphere rooster scoot! There are only two recorded attempts, neither of which ended well.

Yea my heart goes out to the families <3

 

[PA_Bluejay]

I'm going to start saving all my nicked props to make beanies with them.

 

[Heavysledz]

this thread is completely derailed!