T-REX 450SE V2 and I'm running 335 woods with stock paddles and 1 weight each side.

I flew 4 battery packs in 5 to 10mph with gusts to 15. I did alright; had loads of fun and for the first time in awhile; brought the bird back in intact! !

Does anyone change out their blades for such conditions? Would it have been better to have run shorter blades for that reason and to give it a higher headspeed as a result of the shorter 325's or 315's?

Does higher headspeed give You mor authority or stability in winds? Currently, I've clocked mine at 2,300 at 0 pitch 50% throttle. I have an optical tach bought from Miniatureaircraft.com.

Thanks,

Gary

Air flow over the blades is what causes your lift (at anything other than 0° pitch). The rate of air flow varies with RPM and wind. Hovering in wind is like flying forward/backward/sideways flight (dependant upon wind direction). Would you change blades going from hover to forward flight??

Changing blades and/or headspeed is not going to change the fact that you have more airflow (wind) hitting your heli from one direction. One blade in part of it's rotation will always be getting more airflow than the other ... causing you to adjust (pilot the sticks) for it ... unless of course you fly foreward flight with the wind and your speed over ground is the same as the wind speed.

It is my understanding and experiance that the higher the head speed the more wind you can handle. Maybe due to gyroscopic stability. I have read about this in magazines and have noticed my self that if it's windy more headspeed seems to help stabilize the heli. It will still rise and fall with the wind but not as much. Also fly in idle up as you might have to force the heli down if you catch an updraft. I recently found this out when flying on a windy day and wasn't able to get my heli to come down for srveral minutes! It dawned on me later that I could have hit idleup and just flown down.DUH!

Exactly, that's what I thought too. btw. I went back to the shorter 325 woods and it increased My headspeed at half throttle, 0 pitch from 2301 rpm to 2530 rpm. It's snowing right now, so all I can do is wait! [&o]

You can fly in the snow man ... cmon now

The pic is of me flying a TRex I built for my bro (450s).

i have mine set at mid stick normal mode to 75% [which is very tame] and its getting me closer to play in idle up when i get better control. you want the higher head speed and to stay with 325,s for learning.
[it will give stability and performance]

I better get something OTHER than a white canopy then.

Srouthouse; Yea, that's what I'll do for now; thanks!

Gary

Nah, my T-Rex has a white fiberglass canopy with the blue and red SE decals on it. I flew last weekend with about 4" on the ground and didn't have a problem I flew like 3.5 packs that day, man I had so much fun too, first time nose-in (for about 15 seconds felt like 5 min).

Hey, if it's fresh powder, I bet it would be cool to see that swirling wind shear affect when flying over it! !