I have an optical tach that I use for tuning my airplane engines, but I don't know how I'd use it for checking the headspeed on my Shuttle. Maybe dig it in the ground underneath the tip of the main rotor to the side of the heli, being sure to keep it far enough out to not "see" the flybar paddles (using the 2-blade prop setting), then stepping back and watching the numbers while spooling up. Other than that, I'd have to be right on top of those lawnmower blades to use it (needless to say, I'm not going that far just to get the correct headspeed). When setting up my throttle curve, should my headspeed be at the 1700-1800 RPM before I reach hover pitch at about half stick, then maintain the 1700-1800 RPM through full stick? And/or should I set my hover pitch point to lower than half stick (on my 400, I keep the hover pitch at about half stick, and it works well for me)?
I'm not worried to much about acro at this point, since I'm not even really comfortable enough to start FF with it. That'll probably be something I'll look at when the time comes, I just need to get it set up right for what I'm doing now. Another quick question for you regarding flight modes, would it benefit me at all to set up idle 1 as a "normal" mode with consistent headspeed where all I'm controlling on collective is the pitch (kinda what I was trying on Saturday to help deal with the wind, but didn't have it set up)?
I'll give that (moving the tail rod in a hole and upping the gain) a shot before I go out to the field this weekend (looks like the weather's going to cooperate all weekend, other than being between 30-50 degrees F, but I won't let that stop me
).
Thanks again for all the help.
Happy flying.