Another newbie failure!

[Grant85]

the swashplate moves up

I take it you did unplug the motor? You should get into a habit of doing this as you will need to check pitch degrees at mid stick to be at zero and you can only do this when the motor is unplugged.
Now back on track before i confuse you.So when the swahplate moves how do the blades look?
The fat edge of the rotor blades aka ( leading edge) should be pointing skywards= positive pitch.
Or more simply,opposite to what is shown in your picture on the first post of this thread.Check that and let me know

[gazz]

with the swashplate at the top of its travel, the blades remain flat, I can see where this is leading!!
I take it i need to adjust something so that they are pointing up when the swashplate is at the top??

[Grant85]

with the swashplate at the top of its travel, the blades remain flat, I can see where this is leading!!
I take it i need to adjust something so that they are pointing up when the swashplate is at the top??

Okay so it sems you have zero degrees pitch at full stick=blades flat.The blades should only be flat at middle stick with the servo arms at 90 degrees to the sero itself.So what happens when the throttle/collective stick is all the way down? i take it the swash moves down and the leading edge of the blades point down?

[Grant85]

Gazz,In the back of the transmitter where the AA's go,Take out the first four aa's and there should be two white dip switches on a red background,One is throttle reverse and the other is ccpm disable.Which way round are yours mate?

[waveydavey]

Gazz, what transmitter are you using. If your using the one supplied it has a hovering pitch knob and pitch trim, make sure these are in the middle.

[chopperaddict]

Ive had quite a bit of practise on the rc heli master and fms, not the best in the world I'm sure but it helps with understanding the controls. The helicpoter was second hand so I cannot be sure if it was crashed or not. Something interesting I tried this evening was to hold the helicopter from the underside and run it to full power to see if I copuld feel what was going on. With the elevator ( i think thats the term!) right up the helicopter had no feeling of lift and I could certainly still feel the weight of it in my hand, yet as I brought it back down I felt it push very hard down on my hand, to the point where I turned it upside down and it felt as if it would probably fly (certainly wasnt going to risk it!!)

Gazz

PLEASE DO NOT DO THAT - it is soooo dangerous as to be really scary.

Rotor blade tips move at around 200 mph at full throttle. The skids you were holding are held on with 4 little tiny screws. Your head is no more than a foot away from those rotors, the tail blades, the main gears etc etc, any of which could let go at any time. That really and truly is an accident waiting to happen, as someone else has already said.

Buid a lazy susan or even bolt it to something solid. YOu can still see if the blades are pulling up or down.

OFF SOAPBOX

As far as your problem, if it is only giving downward force, you have WAY TOO MUCH negative pitch on it. Get a pitch gauge and ensure yuo have zero degrees at 50% throtle. Then work from there to get your curves as you need them.

[Dedcalm]

It sounds to me as though the mechanical setup needs to be investigated as there is roughly 0 pitch with the swash plate at the top. It also strikes me that if the heli has this mechanical configuration then what else could be wrong!?!?!?

I would definately leave it well alone until someone can give it a thorough checking and sort out the swash link adjustments.

[acwman]

I would definately leave it well alone until someone can give it a thorough checking and sort out the swash link adjustments.

Totally agree.. I'm thinking that even though you tinker about with it, maybe even where it is producing lift, It isn't going to fly properly if it isn't mechanically set up... and even turn into a real pig to fly.

You may want to leave it to someone to go over the whole heli to ensure it's set up properly, and going to fly as well as its going to.

[chopperaddict]

I agree with acwman totally, it sounds to be in real mess.

If you want someone to look it over for you and set it up properly I am very happy to do so for you - NO CHARGE of course other than postage and any parts required.

If you are interested you can email me at iant @ netcplus.com (remove all spaces of course.)

HTH

[GravityKills]

fold the blades back, disconnect the motor, hold the flybar and look from the side:
What matters is the angle between the blades.
1st pic: Full negative pitch, stick at bottom. Maybe you'll have a little bit less, but it should be negative
2nd pic: zero pitch around midstick
3rd pic: Full positive pitch, stick at top

[chopperaddict]

As gravitykills says, that is a good quick and dirty way to see what pitch range you have for sure.

[GravityKills]

>> quick and dirty
It's actually surprisingly accurate if I am a bit more careful (the pictures are taken from an angle).
I don't do any other "measurements" and don't even own a pitch gauge.

[chopperaddict]

Hi gravitykills

To be honest I am not quite sure how you can measure pitch range etc using this technique only, although you can assess that the zero point is correct ?

Experienced pilots (such as yourself) can of course do things that newbies can't do successfully, and I do believe the consensus would be for them to use a pitch gauge to ensure all is correct.

Equally, setting up the swash plate by eye does work, but it can be surprising how often I have done this by eye, and then put my leveling gauge on only to find I am out by as much as 3-4 degrees.

But then, we all have our own methods, and as long as we are happy with the end results, that is really all that matters ?

[GravityKills]

>> the consensus would be for them to use a pitch gauge to ensure all is correct
and degrease every screw with solvent before applying loctite

I wouldn't call it a consensus, at least none where I'm involved. But never mind.
If you need a pitch gauge, that's fine, just don't forget to use common sense at the same time.

Do you believe someone who has owned half a dozen helis could make a 3 degree measurement error with a pitch gauge on a .90 heli? I do believe it now.
(Fortunately I checked it -before- test flying, otherwise getting it back down would have become an interesting exercise).
What's most funny about the story, the owner was adamant that he measured correctly and got quite ****ed at me when I told him otherwise. Needless to say, the test flight did not happen.

>> To be honest I am not quite sure how you can measure pitch range etc using this technique only
you look at the opening angle of the "V" between the blades. You'll get a feeling for it quickly, it's no rocket science.
Then set positive and negative equal for a symmetric setup. That may not work on any RTF heli, but for any serious 3D heli it's just what the doctor ordered.

[gazz]

hovering and pitch knob are set to the middle and the white switches are, top one to the left and bottom to the right. Its got 2 and 1 on the right side and on on the left.