03 January 2006

 

1    Take all links off the swash and set ZERO pitch with the swash midway between its max travel limits - i.e. where the swash plate hits the head at the top of the main shaft and bearing at the bottom travel - to achieve this the links to the servo's should be adjusted so that the swash is level both fore and aft and laterally (take little notice of the specified lengths - these depend on servo shape and arm lengths etc all of which impinge. NOTE you MUST go into your radio SUB TRIM settings and ensure that the three CCPM servo's are all EXACTLY centred so that all three arms are PERFECTLY horizontal - anything less than perfect will not do.

 

2    Before you connect the upper links (i.e. from the swash inner ring) check (with motor disconnected for safety) that your swash travel is correct - i.e. from min to max throttle the swash should JUST be off the limits of travel - set with ATV etc - mid throttle stick should be mid position of swash.

 

3    Set blades to ZERO pitch simply by lining up one with the other (forget pitch gauges) by eye and adjust upper links to mixer and washout arms to achieve this with swash at MID position and all servo's perfectly centred

 

Once you get this far you are ready to begin setting up your pitch and throttle curves

 

Given that you only want to fly upright and hover or gentle circuits - set MODE 1 (i.e. normal non idle up) at something like 5% 40% 70% 90% 100% on your THROTTLE curve (assuming you have a 5 point curve on your radio)!

 

PITCH CURVE - you will need to set pitch point 5 (assuming a 5 point pitch curve on your radio) to max positive pitch - say 8 or 9 degrees (do this roughly by eye and adjust later when test flying) - then set your MID POINT pitch curve percentage to give you ZERO pitch at mid throttle or thereabouts - then set your number 4 point to somewhere midway between ZERO and 9 degrees - say about 6 degrees which will be about where your hover point will be - again fine tuning will be achieved by test flying. Finally go to pitch points 1 and 2 and set these at no more than about minus 1 (for normal mode) which will give you a nice gentle descent as the throttle is reduced for landing.

 

If you want to set an idle up for fast forward flying then suggest the following

 

IDLE UP 1 - set negative pitch on point 1 for about minus 4 degrees - point 2 minus 1 degree - mid stick ZERO pitch - the upper 2 points will be the same as before

 

many heli flyers get this wrong (even experienced ones) but you MUST make sure that the pitch curves from midstick to max throttle are the same on ALL idle ups as well as normal or the machine will jump as you switch between them.