Manual Setting Helicopter Setting up a helicopter Setting up a helicopter for its first flights can be a daunting task, even after you've done it a few times. There is more than one "right" way to do it, and a lot of room for personal preference s, so I don't claim that this page describes the "one true setup" for everyone. What it does describe is the process I use to set up my own helicopters, as well as those of beginners who ask for my assistance. I will walk though the setup, step by step, ex plaining what I do and why I do it. General principles... • 90 degree angles are your friend. With the controls centered, imagine a short line from the center of the servo horn to the ball link. This line should be perpendicular (at 90 degrees to) the link age attached to that ball. If it isn't, you'll find that you get more control throw in one direction than the other, which will leave you with a helicopter that feels different depending on which way you're turning or tumbling. Helicopters are hard enough to fly already; bad setup only makes them more difficult still. • Slop is not your friend. Grab the swashplate and wiggle it up and down... try to tilt it in every direction. Notice any slop? Find and fix the sources. Grab the blade grips and twist them. No tice any slop? Find and fix the sources of the slop. With all those linkages and pivots between the blade grip and the servo horn, there's bound to be some slop, but do everything you can to minimize it. • This document assumes that you have a radio with 5 -point curves . If you have fewer (e.g. JR 8 - channel radios have 3 point throttle curves and tail rotor curves), just ignore the "1/4 stick" points. If you have more (e.g. JR 10 -series and Futaba 9 -series), do the best you can to fill in the blanks. • If you follow all of these instructions to the letter, you'll probably end up with a very flyable helicopter. If you only follow half of the instructions here, and borrow from someone else's setup scheme for the rest, you'll probably end up with a rather uncooper ative beast. You're best off sticking with a single setup paradigm until you're confident that you can experiment, recognize the results (both intended and unexpected results!), and compensate for the side effects of the changes. • That said, a computer rad io is like an etch -a-sketch. If you don't like what you end up with, you can start over as many times as you like. Even better than the etch -a-sketch, you can erase only the part you don't like, and you can restore your old setup perfectly if you just take good notes. There's a lot of room for personal preference in helicopter setup. You find your preferences by experimenting, so don't be afraid to experiment. Just start with something that works, and make one change at a time so you can learn from each lit tle change. • This is an iterative process. Unless you're really lucky, you won't be able to execute each step in sequence without running into a problem that forces you to back up a couple steps, make a change, and work your way forward again. It can be te dious and time -consuming. Set aside an entire evening, and don't be surprised if you need two. This process assumes that you'll be doing 3D, which assumes that you'll need quite a bit of pitch range, which inevitably means that you'll need to fuss with you r linkages to find a combination of lengths and angles that gives you full positive and full negative without binding anything. You'd think that after all these years of all these people doing all these crazy aerobatics, you'd be able to build any kit acc ording to the instructions and get +/ - 10 degrees on the first try. Unfortunately, you'd be wrong. If you're not wrong, you're lucky! I'm sure this will change as manufacturers come to grips (so to speak) with the fact that everyone wants to do 3D these da ys, but I don't think we're there yet. • This document assumes that you're past the training -gear stage and into forward flight . If you're still learning to hover with training gear, a some modifications are in order: 1. Don't bother setting up idle -up -2. 2. Us e a pitch range of 0 to 8 degrees for normal mode and idle -up -1. 3. Set your 5 -point pitch curve for 0, +2, +4, +6, +8 (nice and linear). 4. Start with a throttle curve of 0, 30, 50, 70, 100 for normal mode 5. Start with a throttle curve of 25, 30, 50, 70, 100 f or idle -up -1 6. Get into the habit of using normal mode to start the engine and end your flights, and using idle - up -1 for all of your flying. 7. When the training gear comes off and you start getting into forward flight, switch over to the -4 to +8 collective setups for normal mode and idle -up -1. You'll find it a bit tedious to bring the helicopter back downstairs into a regular hover when you only have 0 degrees of pitch at low stick. It will slow down and descend, but only slowly. 8. When you get into forward f light, get rid of the training gear. With altitude and distance, they will only serve to confuse your eyes like an Escher drawing. What to do Why to do it Start with a blank slate . Any asymmetrical settings in your radio are only going to cause headaches later. The pitch curve - Set all of y our trims and subtrims to zero. settings will be explained later, but for now just note - Set all of your ATVs t o 100%. that there's ten percent at either end of the idle -up -2 range that goes unused, and the 1/4 points (30 and - Set your 'high' dual rates to 100% and your 'low' dual 70%) are moved in five percent to keep things linear. rates to 75%. This will allow throttle hold to have a little bit of extra - Set your idle -up -2 pitch curve to 10, 30, 50, 70, and pitch on top . 90 % from low -stick to high -stick. - Set your idle -up -2 throttle curve to 100,60,50,60,100. These curves will need to be refined later, but they provide a pretty reasonable place to start. You'll fine - - Set your normal -mode pit ch curve to 30 , 45,60,75,90 . tune the pitch curve with a pitch gauge, and you'll fine -tune the throttle curve with a tach (if you're - Set your normal -mode throttle curve to 0 , 30, 40, 60 , lucky) or by ear (which also works). The n you'll fine - and 100 % from low -stick to high -stick. tune both of them all over again a couple times. Its almost inevitable. Center the servo horns. Remember, 90 degree This should be obvious. If it isn't, just trust me. angles are your friend. Get the servo horns as close to straight as you can get them mechanically, and then use the subtrim to get each one perfectly centered. Do this for all five channels: throttle, collective, both cyclics, and the rudder. Level the swashplate. If the swashplate isn't level, this will confuse the pitch gauge in later steps. Adjust linkages as necessary. This will vary from one helico pter to the next, so I can't offer any specific suggestions. Level the chassis. If the cha ssis isn't level, all of your pitch gauge readings will be skewed correspondingly. This will Put a bubble -level on the sideframes, servo tray, tail leave you with a helicopter that lugs down when you boom, or whatever you can find. Shim un der the skids climb upright and overspeeds when you climb as necessary to get the heli level. You only need to do inverted, or vice versa. one axis (e.g. looking from the side or looking from the front), just remember to make all of your pitch gauge readings while you're looking at the helicopter along that axis. Zero the collective. For 3D flying, you want the helicopter to behave identically whether it's right -side -up or inverted. This Hang a pitch gauge on a blade and a bubble -level on requires a pitch curve that provides zero pitch at the flybar. If you have a "flybar alignment" pitch gauge center stick, and equal amounts of positive and like the Miniature Aircraft or Helimax gauges, set it for negative pit ch at high and low stick. zero degrees and tinker until the flybar is parallel. Even if you're not into 3D flying just yet, centering Set your radio to idle -up -two, and center the collect ive the collective setup at zero degrees will still make stick. the rest of the setup process a bit easier. This part varies from one helicopter to the next, but There is an exception to this guideline, however. there are typically three sets of links to consider. First, Some helicopters, designed specifically for look at the links between the collective servo and beginners, will not have enough collective range to whatever it works on - a rockin g servo in the case of allow a symmetrical pitch curve.