The reason that the "bench" pitch settings on the Venture do not work when in the air is due to the blade bearing seats (correction, that should be feathering spindle support cuffs/dampers inner diameter) being molded too big. (this defect was reported and glossed over, in the review of the Venture in a recent issue of the british MHW magazine.) Consequently, when loaded (as in the air) the blade grips will shift upwards. Consequently, this will pull the pitch down. This may all seem OK at first, until the resultant wear in the blade grip bearing seats (correction: spindle cuff/dampers) starts to cause "woof and poof" flutter while bring the collective pitch through 0 degrees as the blade grips start to "shift" at random.

When the swashplate starts to wear and show slop between the two stars, one can replace the stock unit with the very expensive metal JR unit or with the very good and the far less expensive (1/2 price) metal unit from the Century Raven series. This hint was given to me by a very "JR oriented" hobby shop owner in Canada. All one will need is another two long balls (for a total of 4) on the inner star instead of using the two short and two long ones supplied with it.

Hmmm....maybe I should just opt for the complete eCCPM Raven 30 heli, as it costs the same and already comes with this upgraded metal swashplate, a better tail rotor. thrust bearings in the main rotor blade grips and tail rotor blade grips, Blade grips with properly molded bearing seats, a heavy duty 6mm feathering spindle, a cool looking canopy .