Steve, blades were covered for years with shrink covering with no real problems, until people started going to wider blades. The nationals were won several times in the mid to late eighties with blades covered with heat shrink, and we were doing a lot more than hovering. I never had any problems with blades going out of track or making any more noise than modern blades make. The covering on stock Raptor blades is just a form of heat shrink, and they fly quit nicely. The covering from MA does work quit well, and I would consider it a must for really wide cord blades, but blades as narrow as the R30 woodies should work alright recovered in heat shrink. BTW, back when I used shrink to cover blades, I've had people ask if they were made of plastic or fiberglass. You can put craftmanship into anything, even putting cover on rotor blades.