Maxx
Key Veteran
Location: Shreveport Louisana
| You need to set your pitch (s) on the bench and use the throttle to get to RPM you want at the field. If you are still hovering forget about the Idle up pitch and throttle curves, you don't need them right now! You didn't say which heli or radio you have so I'll be general. I would start like this: set your pitch curve to 0 at low stick, 50% at half and 100% at full throttle. Put the swashplate/levers in the middle of their travel and the collective servo arm in the position to give you a 90 degree pushrod run to the collective pitch arm. What you are looking for is 0 degrees M/R pitch at the center of the servo travel. Now adjust you ATV's on the collective to get the maximum throw you can get with your heli (you won't need over +/- 10 degrees). Now that you have the collective set for maximum pitch movement you need to go to the pitch curve and set it up...for learning to hover and fly around leave the hover point in the middle of the curve (50%) , you can learn the 3/4 stick hover later! A 1/2 stick hover will give you a "softer" collective feel that you need while you learn cyclic control, you can move the coll/throttle stick more and the heli will react slower than if you have the hover at 3/4 stick...set your normal pitch curve to 0 degrees at low throttle, your 50% stick to hover pitch ( 5 deg. for a .60 and 7 deg. for a .30) and your top end pitch to 9-10 degrees. Now set your throttle curve up the same way , servo at the middle of it's travel at half stick and the carb barrel at the middle of it's travel and the carb arm and the servo arm parallel to each other. Use the ATV's to set the end points first to ensure you are getting full throw without any binding (remember to pull the throttle trim all the way down when setting the throttle low end point!) . Now with the travel endpoints set go to the throttle curve and set the 50% throttle stick position to about 60% on the curve. This is a good starting point. If, when you go to start you heli the engine won't fire, move the throttle curve up to where the engine starts and idles at low stick with the throttle trim all the way up, then you can kill the engine with the throttle trim lever. Now go flying...if the rotor speed is to slow for your taste add throttle to the hover point, leave the pitch set as you set it on the bench...this way you won't be adjusting two things at the same time (this can lead to swearing, yelling and Migraines) . With this kind of set up you will find the throttle/ collective is smoother because you are using the whole throttle stick movement from low to high to control the engine and M/R vs. the (hover) at 3/4 stick setup that has 0 at 1/2 stick and full throttle at top stick...you only move the stick HALF as much for the same throttle/collective movement and that is way too touchy for learning to fly IMPO. The 3/4 stick hover set up trick is great for after you get comfortable flying around and have good control of the heli. BTW, because you set the collective ATV and servo up with the 0 degrees at half stick and used your Pitch Curve to set your actual pitch curves in normal, your pitch setup will only require you to go to idle up 1 and pull the pitch to -10 the center to 50% ( 0 degrees) and leave the top pitch at +10 to get a 3D curve when you are ready! Matching the throttle curves will be just as simple. If you are still hovering stay away from anything less than -1 degree of M/R pitch...when you start flying around go to your normal pitch curve and pull the low stick position down to -3 or -4...your heli will come down just fine without doing the "cinderblock" type of decent! Hope this helps... Chris |
