Hey everyone. I am happy to announce that on August 25, 2014, I was asked to join the Zeal Blades team. I would like to thank Josh Brannon, and Zeal Blades for giving me the opportunity to represent and support Zeal Blades and Team Zeal. I look forward to being a part of the team, and helping to make Zeal Blades become the number one choice in blades in our hobby. :)

I got to use this little guy last week at our flying club. One of our members had a screw that had too much thread lock applied, and would not come out. So we decided to try and heat it up, which was a perfect test for the Lynx soldering iron. We plugged it into a  3s lipo, to get the full 90watts of power to heat the screw up. Let me tell you...this thing heats up FAST with a 3s battery hooked up to it. It only took about 45 seconds to get to full temperature and another 20 seconds to heat the screw enough to free it. I highly recommend this little iron, and I will never go to the field without mine from now on. 

The only thing I don`t like about it, is that it comes with a Dean`s connector. But rather than change it, I just made an adapter to go from Deans to EC3.

I got a chance to give the new Zeal 600mm carbon fiber rotor blades some flights today. The helicopter I flew them on, is my TSA Infusion 600N platinum helicopter, with YS60 SR engine, and Hatori SAB-1 pipe. The first flight was kind of a gentle flight to get used to the way the new blades feel. But I soon started to warm up to them and fly a little harder with each flight.

The first thing I noticed about the Zeal blades, was that they are very aggressive on the collective,and deliver lots of pop. Fast direction changes and stops were not a problem, at all. They track very well in fast forward flight and they are very stable in slower maneuvers as well. The only thing I found that might be and issue for some, is they are a little hard to see at certain angles. Other than that, I have no complaints at all. These blades are very well made, and at a very affordable price. 

Zeal`s customer service is also among the best I have ever encountered. These guys honestly value their customers and really stand behind their product. Check out Zeal blades at http://www.zealblades.com 

Here is a handy little gadget that I thought would be a cool addition to my toolbox. It`s a lipo powered soldering iron from the folks at Linx Heli Innovations. It will run on a 2 cell or 3 cell lipo battery, with 60 watt output on 2 cell, and 90 watt output on 3 cell.

It should come in handy for soldering in the field, when electrical power is not available, and it is small enough ( 150mm long...470mm including cord... by 8mm diameter) to fit nicely into my toolbox without taking up much room. It comes with a Deans connector, and a nice little carbon fiber stand. 

I will review it as soon as I get a chance to use it. :)

Most of you know that I am very fond of Rail rotor blades, and fly them exclusively on all of my helicopters. I never thought that I would ever consider flying another brand, until now.

A few days ago, I decided it was time to give Zeal rotor blades a try. I have been hearing really good things about Zeal blades, and so.....I had to get a couple sets, and see for myself what the buzz is. I bought two sets of red 600mm main blades, and two sets of red 92mm tails blades to go on my TSA Infusion 600N Platinum, and TSA Infusion 600N Pro helicopters.

First let me say that these blades made a great first impression on me. They come nicely packaged in a velvet lined (yes... VELVET lined) wooden box, with a sliding black lexan lid with a vinyl Zeal logo. The tail blades also came in little velvet lined wooden boxes. Very Nicely done, Zeal. 

Out of the box, the Zeal blades are very attractive. The paint job is very nice, and the color scheme is very clean. The blades are carbon fiber, and they are very ridged, so they should be great for 3D flying.

The quality of the Zeal blades seems to be equal to any of the other top brands on the market, and were perfectly balanced right out of the box. I am a bit concerned that being mostly black and red, that they might be a little hard to see. But I have flown Mavrikk G5 VSTs, and never had a problem with seeing those. So I shouldn`t have a problem seeing the Zeals either. 

I`m really looking forward to getting these out to the field, so I can do flight comparisons between Rail, Mavrikk, KBDD, and a few other brands I have on hand.