How to check and measure blade pitch...

[muscleflex]

When checking or setting main blade pitch, how do you guys straighten your main blades? Is eyeballing it enough? Or do we need to spool up to make sure the blades are absolutely straight for accurate pitch readings?

[Pj1969]

I just unfold blades and line them up with the boom, seems to work for me and pitch gauge calibrated on heli and jobs a good un

[CromedCm]

I have always just straightened them with my hands, never had any problems. Starting up the heli is a bit much i think lol. One thing i do thought is set the blades slightly looser than what i fly them at making it a bit easier to move them and get them as straight as possible. I also do line them up with the boom.

[muscleflex]

Thanks. Never thought of lining up against the boom...
Will try this tomorrow! I want to re-check my pitch settings on my heli!

[_tj_]

+1 to line them up with the boom.
And zero the pitch gauge on the rotor head.

[muscleflex]

+1 to line them up with the boom.
And zero the pitch gauge on the rotor head.

This is part of my problem - it's for my scale heli - I have nowhere to xero my digital gauge! So at the moment, I just zero it on the same surface as where the heli is stood.

[Boggy]

take the blades off ,drop a screwdriver down through the bolt hole and line it up with the main shaft. = zero pitch

[electricsceadu]

what a great idea
I've never thought of doing it that way

[waveydavey]

If you've got 2 the same Dave you can do both grips at the same time and line the handles up with each other even better.

[waveydavey]

This is part of my problem - it's for my scale heli - I have nowhere to xero my digital gauge! So at the moment, I just zero it on the same surface as where the heli is stood.

Not accurate enough I'm afraid, it needs to be on the head or the fbl unit otherwise you might as well just eyeball it which some people do. The only way to do it from the bench is if you first level the heli in the direction that you're going to level it in. So if you're in line with the tail boom then you would need to level the head to the bench first before resetting your digital gauge off the bench in the same direction you're going to read it. Boggy's method much quicker and accurate. Is there no where on the grip you can put the gauge enough to set blade pitch once you've done zero

[Mike Sanders]

Once you have found zero pitch using the screwdriver, keep the FBL plugged in so that the servos prevent the blade grip from moving. Then put the blade on and zero the pitch gauge on it. You can then take the other measurements from that zero.

[michael.lathwell]

Can't you leave the blades folded? If the tips touch that should equal 0degs pitch I would think.

[Nick_C]

Can't you leave the blades folded? If the tips touch that should equal 0degs pitch I would think.

#
Not on a large heli,would put loads strain on servos,ok a micro

[michael.lathwell]

Yea fair point, I didn't see what model it was for. So if you held the heli up so the main shaft was horizontal for the sake of argument that could work

[bigpops]

#
Not on a large heli,would put loads strain on servos,ok a micro

The load on the servos is negligible compared to what they go through in flight. Even a low end 700 class servo will have 10kg-cm of torque. Most way more than that. Pick up a 690 blade and hold it by the root. You'll find it takes a little effort, but nowhere near 10kg worth of effort.