After being run in my engine now needs to be fine tuned.

I've been doing some reading on the forum and seen that the best way to do it is to first adjust the main needle whilst the throttle is fully open, and secondly to adjust the idle needle for the ideal idling and hovering capability. So far so good.

Now this sounds great in theory but my problem is that my helicopter is going to fly away when I jam the throttle fully open - I'm not experienced enough to execute this manoeuvre (sp??). Anyway, I have been thinking and I have come up with some suggestions. Any input/advice/ideas would be appreciated:

1. Keep the heli on the ground by securing metal/concrete weights to the landing skids so that it cannot take off even at full power.

2. Set the throttle hold on the radio to 100%. Then, by using the collective, maintain a slight negative/zero pitch and flick the throttle hold switch - the engine will then open fully without effecting take off. (Problem: blades will produce less drag due to shallow angle of attack, and headspeed will be excessive.)

3. Set the ATV on the collective pitch (Ch 6) to 0%. The throttle will then open whilst the collective stays put. (Headspeed problem.)

4. Lie down next to the heli, disconnect the throttle link and manually open the throttle and listen to the motor. Leave collective pitch at slight negative/zero. (There is a bit of a danger factor here, as well as grass/dust in your face.)

Clearly I'm not keen to remove the blades because then the engine is not under load and will overspeed - also I'm thinking that its best to tune the engine under realistic load conditions otherwise the revving/power characteristics might change once the blades have been attached.

Any experiences/advice would be appreciated.

Rawlie