Originally Posted by FITandFUEL

I just use a regular nut and able some new loctite from time-to-time, has worked great so far. I did have one of the original prop nut come off after a tip over while landing.

Be careful with Loctite.
It's thin, runny, and wicks into confined areas (on purpose).
It will attack and soften some plastics.
Most pilots use it judiciously or not at all for fear of damaging a prop.

Thanks for the tip! I just put a tiny dab of thread lock blue in the nut.

When I got my first F450 I did not realize that Loctite reacts with the props. I just assumed that it would be good to make sure that the nut stayed on. Well, on my first flight I had 2 props totally grenade on me. Fortunately for me I was not hit by them and I was only 2 feet off the ground. From then on I decided that I would just check tightness in pre-flight.

Edit: Ed was actually the one who informed me about loctite and props after my blunder. I believe that most of the "mysterious breaking DJI props" was a direct result of using loctite. Major no-no!

Please do not use loctite it will damage the plastic on the prop and cause it to fail. Part of your preflight check is to tighten the prop nuts. If you are doing that you won't have a problem.

Originally Posted by Bo Lorentzen

Thinking out loud.

Tried some too small tri blade props. 7x4
It do not work..! so don't try.

But.. they have very little angle to the air and spin fast and smooth. I touched the phantom to get a feeling for the smoothness compared to how it normally feels while flying. incredible smooth.

Learned one more thing I have not given enough though to so far, control moves cause a lot of vibration in the phantom, flying the small props made it very clear to feel the effect of control moves, when pushing on the landing gear the props on one side would counter, everytime there is a minute change in prop speed, each change cause a brief vibration in the rig as motors change speed, which could easily explain why I repeatedly have seen clear video and then suddenly a brief flash of jello.

Either way. these did not work and I ordered some bigger ones for kicks.

OH.. did not work, as in, they are too small, and the phantom barely climb with them.. other than that, it flew remarkable well and smooth, and the sound was something completely different too.

Anxious to see results Bo. Back when Gary Goodrum was testing the gimbal for the F450 he recommended GWS 3-blade props to me. He said that he was getting good results with them so I tried them.

On my 450 I would get a bit less flight time (tri-blade props are less efficient) than the stock props but it flew way smoother and it seemed to hold better in wind and not oscillate during descents as much as the stock props did. They were cheap too.

Getting the right size 3-bladers will be the trick here. On my F450 I switched from the stock 10" props on 3S to the 9x5x3 on 3S and that worked well.

Finding a proper conversion size from the 8" props on the Phantom may be tricky. I might try 8x4x3 to see how it works. I can tell you that 9x5x3 won't work (I didn't think it would). I tried for a very short flight. Too much amp draw.

The GWS 3 blade props are much more floaty due to the added blade area, they also have a wider flatter blade. So they can be good for AP/AV use but they also have a lot of flex too I have found.

Originally Posted by Tahoe Ed

Please do not use loctite it will damage the plastic on the prop and cause it to fail. Part of your preflight check is to tighten the prop nuts. If you are doing that you won't have a problem.

Exactly. Simplest is to check nuts each flight. If not that use nylon locknuts. loctite is a no no with plastic.

Originally Posted by flitelab

The GWS 3 blade props are much more floaty due to the added blade area, they also have a wider flatter blade. So they can be good for AP/AV use but they also have a lot of flex too I have found.

Balancing and coning (where the prop flexes and looks like a cone) are the two biggest problems.

Originally Posted by flitelab

The GWS 3 blade props are much more floaty due to the added blade area, they also have a wider flatter blade. So they can be good for AP/AV use but they also have a lot of flex too I have found.

There is good and bad in that. I think that one of the reasons they handle wind better is due to the flexibility. The blades flex as wind hits so they absorb some of the energy allowing the multi to hold position better. However, that same flex adds to the inefficiency reducing flight time.

I used mine to inadvertently cut cat tails on a few occasions and they would bend instead of break. I would straighten the blade or blades and I'd be back in business.

Although the GWS are fun, smooth, cheap, and a different sound (kinda cool), once I tried the Graupners I was sold and the GWS sat after that.

Here is my Futaba T8J fail safe test flying the phantom

DJI Phantom Fail Safe test using Futaba T8J (4 min 57 sec)

NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER TURN OFF YOUR TRANSMITTER!

Really...Never.

Has to be done to test the failsafe you know. I do it on every copter I setup and also on other things. Now, obviously, I do it while holding it down just to be safe.

Put the failsafe on a switch. If you can't do that then test in the assistant and hope you have done everything right or you never need it.

I have Naza + GPS on my $3k F550 and the RTH Fail safe set... never tested and never needed.

Originally Posted by Wheels_UK

Here is my Futaba T8J fail safe test flying the phantom

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoUDkDMzSRg

You are very helpfull and have taken alot of time with your videos but its never a good idea to encourage pilots tot turn off there TX.
Plus you can easily setup the FS on a switch to demo how FS works.

Thats the advantage of using a better TX like you are.
You can setup a switch for FS

Originally Posted by R Hudson

Anxious to see results Bo. Back when Gary Goodrum was testing the gimbal for the F450 he recommended GWS 3-blade props to me. He said that he was getting good results with them so I tried them.

Well, the result is
1. barely climbing with what I had in house 7x4's no point in testing these further
2. incredible smooth when I touched it in flight.

3. these were master airscrews, not flexible at all, feel almost like wood in terms of stiffness and also pretty fat cores.

4. very very cool sound...

I ordered some 8 and 9 inchers to see how it plays. the smoothness with the first flight was to the point I considered hard-mounting the GoPro this morning for kicks.