rick02379

I recently picked up a crashed blade sr. i have rebuilt it to the point where everythinng works but while trying to take off it wants to drift towards the left (looking at the copter) I have adjusted everything that i can find in the online manual to no avail. The trim buttons on the radio will slow the drift but not eliminate it. Can anyone tell me what needs to be adjusted? BTW i am a novice, this is my first helicopter. Thanks

cubaneight

Centre the trims on the tranny, switch on and check to see how the swash plate is sitting. I'd guess that you need to adjust the swash ball links to level the swash plate fore and aft and to have the swash very slightly offset to the right.

C8

Callouscade

My Feedback: (6)

to the left when looking with the tail towards you right? it will do that. get it off the ground and trim it. it did that for me too. never found out what caused it. but once i got it up it was fine.

Doug47

My Feedback: (24)

Right.
All collective pitch helicopters will drift to the left, just as you'll notice when its in a solid ,stationary hover, tail in, right in front of you the airframe itself will be slightly tilted to the right.
It can be trimmed to an extent, but only for a very narrow window of temperature, wind, head speed, power remaining, etc,etc. Once outside those very briefly open paramenters it's going to drift to the left.
Collective pitch helis of any sort won't do anything hands off any longer than a few seconds.
One light bulb illuminating moment for me came from watching a full size heli pilot hovering a Jet Ranger in a very stable hover.
The guy was moving each and every control constantly to keep his hover and not much either, sometimes it looked like he was just leaning on this or that control . Doesn't that sound familiar ?. Doug

n3721c

My sr does the same thing but I also noticed when I got it out of ground effect it flew fine.It's just that first little jump to hover that it does it.

rotarydoc

This might help.....

http://www.rcheliwiki.com/Translating_tendency

http://helicopterflight.net/translating_tendency.htm

http://www.helicopterpage.com/html/forces.html

Glenn

Rob2160

yes. flying a real heli keeps you very busy.. and the same with an RC CP heli.. virtually the same learning curve.... ( used to bea Police Heli pilot )

The reason it drifts left is that the tail rotor is pushing significant air to the right.. and the natural reaction is to push the helicopter LEFT... simple physics..

When the heli first lifts off it will drift left until you apply a correction and then the heli will tilt right slightly.. it will have to remain tlited right by a few degrees to continually balance the force from the tail rotor and establish equilibrium..

Exactly the same in real helicopters.. In our Jet Ranger, the tail rotor was on the left so the heli had to Lean Left to avoid drift.. when landing the left skid would always touch down first...

Watch any real heli very closely on take off and landing and you will also notice it..

A Squirrel helicopter AS350 etc... will tilt right in a stable hover... just like most RC helis.. due to the tail rotor being on the right...

Here is one of my helis.. it drifts left a lot on take off... completely normal.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yv3ZALt3F4Q[/youtube]

and one of the Blade SR.. it also drifts left on take off.. seen clearly in the vid..

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jq6h6s90Fto[/youtube]

PS.. I don't recommend flying CP helis indoors.. I am actually wearing protective goggles on my eyes when I do this...

Rob2160

Double thumbs up for this.. Yes, correct, etc etc..

rick02379

Thanks to everyone for the info. I guess i'll try to get outside with the heli and see what happens. i have no experience to try to fly in a confined area.