RE: Checking / Setting Cyclic Pitch
One example, a fellow was bellyaching about his slow roll rate. He did a little online research and bought green paddles. That didnt help. He bought hard dampeners. No help. He moved to the outer holes on the washout arms, it made it squirelly but it didnt roll any faster. He finally brought it up here and I flew it.
I then performed the check I outlined and saw he had 9 degrees of cyclic. He had performed the Rays setup where you set up the helicopter just short of binding the swash in the back right corner (you are safe on the left that way because you usually have right trim to counter translating).
I reduced his throws to 7 degrees of cyclic, he was griping the whole time I was taking his precious control throw away. (i told him he was free to do it his way but since he drove over an hour he might want to hush and listen)
1 pass down the flight line doing roll after roll with no bogging and he was on his way to pick up lunch.
I've fixed others the same way.