ORIGINAL:
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snip> today was my first actual lift off and i was wondering if the swashplate or servos were sticking. if you run the chopper on a table (with the skids weighed down) throttle over half way and use the right stick( in any direction and release) it snaps back to center and level with the earth. <snip
Of course: the blades are rigidly mounted to the helicopter! Well, sort of rigidly, the o-ring dampers let the disk flex in flight just a little bit relative to the frame of the heli. But not nearly as much as you are able to get it to flex with it restrained.
When you apply cyclic while the heli is restrained, the frame can't follow the disk, so the disk moves funny and makes you think something is wrong when it isn't. In flight the behavior is very different, and except for extreme abrupt maneuvers, the disk moves very little _with respect to the rest of the heli_. Rather, the motion of the swash makes the whole disk tilt and it takes the frame of the heli along with it.