Align 55H Tuning Guide

[jimbojetset]

Tuning Nitro's is a dark art and any help, hint's or tips in tuning my Align 55H would be greatly appreciated.

[j2tgw]

I normally set mid and top needles on my 55s at about 1.5 turns out for both
do a few power hovers full pitch up and down
Then land and check temp of back plate with finger
It should be hot but not enought to burn you
If cold 1or 2 turns in or hot 1 or 2 out and try again
Seems to work for all the guys at my club

[waveydavey]

Use the following videos as a guide, not specific to the 55 but they'll help

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/104386924/t...3benchtalk.wmv

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/104386924/tuningp4protune.wmv

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/104386924/B...e%20Tuning.mp4

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/104386924/tuningp2basics.wmv

Be careful with the mid on the 55, too lean and engine cuts will haunt you

[coolice]

Hey.

Engine tuning can be quite complicated to grasp straight away, to some extent all needles effect one another at certain rpm points and it's a case of seeing where these points are and adjusting to correct for the engines mixture.
As above you wouldn't be going wrong by setting your mid range and high needles at 1.5 turns out as a starting point, as these are where most flying engines currently sit at.
As well as the back plate temperature test, listen to the engines exhaust note to as if it's lean you can normally hear a rasphy sound in high load manouvers and in the hover. Also the smoke stream is a good indication at times, different fuels smoke more or less than one another, but a constant steady stream of smoke coming from the exhaust can also tell you you're on the right path.

As above, Dave didn't realise his mid range effected the engine so much while off loading the head in a diver (while inverted I remember) and past experience of the older Hyper 50 told us the mid range likes to be richer. Of course this old engine didn't have the 3rd mid range needle and so had to be tuned differently, it's easier now with the 55's.
.