Safe Way to track blades??

[Eckchaz]

Thanks Waveydavey, I did find the link in the end.. and I really appreciate ur offer for help.. Im going to give it a try first and I'll PM u if I get stuck!

Also I got my swashplate leveller delivered today.. I took everything above the swashplate off and put the tool on... I found the swashplate to be leaning about 4 o'clock (if nose was pointing at 12) about 2mm down on the right and back points when left point is touching! I thought RTF means its RTF.. not miles out!! Doesn't matter.. I took all the linkages off and got the manual out.. doubled checked the lengths.. got the swashplate level and put them all back on.. so it should give me a better lift off/hover instead of what I would have presumed a angled backward lift off and fighting to get it to "sit"?

Boxy, I've learnt from Bob's 101 (helifreak.com) on balancing blades and have done that to the 4 sets I've got. The Radix was 99.9% perfect and the other 3 unbranded "cheap" learning carbons needed a little adjustment... My Q is, Does balanced blades = no tracking problems??

Checked the pitch.. the blades are balanced and left the Radix's on.. Got all the Metal, Carbon upgrade parts on her now so nearly a very happy chappy, as I just need to get some balls when the weather gets good to have my first ever flight!! Cant wait to lose my virginity!!

Just wanna thank you for responses and a great site to search for Info!

[boxy]

cool must have got myself all mixed up mind you still learning......

[waveydavey]

No Eddie, balanced doesn't mean they will track correctly. The linkages and c of g affect the track.

[SRH990]

Whatever heli I'm working on I always static track the blades using a pitch gauge to check both blades have the same pitch, adjusting if necessary. If you're using reasonable quality blades and the mechanical setup of the heli is fine with no bent or damaged components, this should give you blades that are in track in flight. If not, then it should be pretty obvious in the hover.

I prefer not to use tracking tape, marking one blade grip as the 'master' which is never adjusted, only altering the other blade to track, if you don't have a 'master' blade you can end up altering both at different times which will ****-up the pitch curve.

[barryorbik]

Eddie, I had to track the blades on my 450's without help and had the same concerns as yourself. My solution was to buy one of the large wooden 'lazy susans' from IKEA which cost around a fiver. Then I used four strips of the thin Align double sided battery retaining velcro straps and screwed these to the lazy susan where the heli skids rest, two on each skid to hold he heli tight. This allows safe full power input tests for tracking and swash you can test the gyro/tail are working ok. Hope this helps

Barry

[Eckchaz]

Ta Waveydavey.. I thought i wouldnt.. I only asked from what Boxy said.

Barry, I never thought of strapping the heli skids to something! How much give do u allow? i.e, are the skids firmly planted to the lazy susan or do u allow an inch lift etc?

[SRH990]

Be cautious strapping heli's down to fixed objects, smaller heli's are reasonable but be aware you may get problems with resonance, I wouldn't risk it with 30 size nitro & up, best to check by hovering.

[barryorbik]

Eckchaz, I normally tie it down pretty tight to get an idea of how it is tracking and set up but as Steve said dont try it with anything bigger than a 450. I had my Mini Titan try to fly off with the lazy susan on 3/4 chat, so my Gaui 550 would definately become a heli saucer!

Dont know how you mark your blades but I use a red balance tape strip on one blade and a blue on on the other. Then mark the blade holder of the red one with some of the wife's best red nail varnish. This helps to identify which links you need to adjust.

Hope this helps

Have fun

Barry

[coptermanic]

You don't need to mark them. Check the tracking gap in the hover, change one of the blades pitch. Re-check in the hover. Bigger gap=wrong blade. I used to tape/mark the blades, now I just dab one of the blade bolts with black ink.