Why is there a Defender Blade on an Orchard Rite pole?

So, why would we be seeing a Defender blade on an Orchard Rite pole on one of Royce McKean’s properties?

As I stated yesterday, the simple answer is that there is a new broom coming in terms of noise regulations and like the shrewd businessman Royce is, there is no doubt that he will be hedging his bets to provide options if he finds himself in a tight corner and being forced to actually COMPLY with a noise level.

But that’s not all.

This is an Orchard Rite pole, this is an Orchard Rite supplied engine and control and monitoring system. Royce went with Orchard Rite because  “The length of time they’ve been in business and what they’d be like to work with longer term also contributed to our decision that these are the type of people we want to do business with.”

Yet what have Orchard Rite done lately to move their product forward? Sure there are commercial considerations to weigh up. Can we make it cheaper? Can we provide more coverage? I don’t know if Orchard Rite fans provide any advantage in either of these areas, but one thing is for sure, reducing the noise of these fans has not been Orchard Rites primary focus. They are renowned for being the noisiest of any fans and while some might blame the installer or the owner for turning the fans up to an unreasonable level, Orchard Rites attention to noise has been nil.

While the Amarillo has morphed into the Defender in an effort to get quieter and the already quiet 4 bladed Frost Boss has pushed the envelope with the C-49. What have Orchard Rite done?

Good news.

Their research and development department has been hard at work. They have burned the midnight oil, conducted countless aerodynamic tests and I hear that they used a supercomputer normally reserved for nuclear detonation simulations to finally produce this…

 So what are you looking at?

Well, I’m no expert, but it looks like they took normal blades and extended them by inserting a longer centre section.

Seriously, this was installed next to one of the Marlborough noise hotspots in the Wairau valley. This is Orchard Rites answer to noise problems with frost fans.

For crying out loud. Is it any wonder that Royce McKean is going to risk voiding a warranty on an Orchard Rite frost fan by trying the opposition’s new blade when this is the best that Orchard Rite can come up with?

I can only hope that this is the product of Spanners Watson the retarded South Island mechanic rather than an example of the finest engineering brains of a country that sent men to the moon.

Pathetic.