At this step, it appears important to have the servo arms level. I assume that means straight out, perpendicular to the main shaft. Well, one of mine is not, however the swashplate is level (perp. to the main shaft). It appears that from the factory the one arm was off, but the control arm is adjusted to level the swash plate.

Any comments? Thanks,

The servo arms are removable with just one screw. You can lift and then set the arm to a new position. You will then have to readjust the servo pushrods to again make the swashplate level. You need to set the right-hand stick transmitter trims to center and then arm your 4in1 so that all the servos move to center/neutral first before lifting and turning any of the servo arms. I lifted and turned one of my servo arms, because it was off a bit.
Æ

I don't see the benefit of having them perfectly level simply because the swashplate sits off it's access to compensate for wash anyways. Also, extreme flying rarely happens with the Blade where the max throws of the servos are required....I trim & fly!! If you start tinkering with things that you have no idea about you're only gonna get yourself in over your head and it'll fly horrible, IF it even gets off the ground.

I too found that the servos were not exactly level either. I tried to pull off the throws and level them, however that wasn't possible. But I was still able to level the swashplate and still have 1/2" room at the top of the mainshaft for the head. But you need to be careful. You can damage the servo if not. Hope you find your 'happy place' and are able to get the servos and swashplate adjusted right. the main thing is to ensure that the swashplate is level and you have the main blades and head set properly.

Good Luck, and happy flying...

Thanks to all of you who responded. I'll leave the servo arm alone, and the swashplate as well, as it is level, and 1/2" from the top.

The servo arms ARE repositionable if you can reach the screw. To reach the screw you may have to pull the entire servo from the frame, which can be difficult because the double sticky tape holds it really good. It is then very easy to reattach the servo to the frame, again with double sticky tape. But the whole proceedure of removal and reattachment takes time and patience.
I have to admit at first I was a bit intimidated by the seeming complexity of this helicopter, but now that I've changed many of the parts it seems hardly more than a toy.

True, there probably is no real benefit in having all the servo arms absolutely level. But it does look nicer! I'm currently doing an entire frame replacement and decided to go through the entire process of checking out each and every part/assembly. I didn't break my frame in a crash, but I didn't like the condition it was in when it came out of the box RTF (brand new) Like the old saying "If you want anything done right you have to do it yourself". When my LHS gets some of the aluminum swash plates I'm going to install one of them also.
Anyway, I get personal satisfaction from a job well done, plus there is the added benefit of having gained experience setting up and adjusting this helicopter. That is why I'm going to do the DD tail replacement. Just so I can experience it for myself. If I don'tlike it, I'll convert it back to original.
Æ

Weight is not an issue. Response is the issue. This bird is cheap compared to anything else out there and you would have to buy every mod available (which I nearly have) to come even close to the base price of others. That's what makes it so cool. You can try anything. And with some quality sim time, you can do just about anything the big birds can do. When I got my first heli a little over a year ago, I couldn't even hover for the first four months. The first day I had the blade it was in a perfect hover the first flight. Ok, second flight, I upgraded to the aluminum swash for the second. Have been going non-stop since. Although I'm not brave enough to invert yet, it's not because the bird's not capable. Just got the Bell-Hiller and autorotation gear mods. This is just too much fun.

Zooland1,

Where did you get the bell\hiller? Im waiting for the eflite set up but thier back ordered everywhere.

You can put the link in one of the other holes to center it. My servo arm wouldn't center because it ended up between two teeth, however by moving the link to the top hole on the arm the link is centered.

When you install the alum swash, check the links for movement. The balls are a little oversize and you need to squeeze the links like bdavison recommends about 8 pages back. And yes the swash is well worth the upgrade. So much smoother than the stock one. (the DD TR is worth it too)

During the step where you center the trims and set the sticks (collective down), is the transmitter in Normal Mode, or Idle Up Mode?
When set to Idle Up mode, the servo arms appear to be centered, but if I set the blades to 0 degrees here, when I am in Normal Mode, at down throttle, the blades are at a very steep angle, around 8 degrees. So when hovering, the helicopter is basically flying at a stall. What's the proper way to set the blade angle? Thanks,

mtracey,

To set blade level to 0, you must be in idle-up mode (idle-up switch towards you), all trims centered and stick at mid position. You then set the blades level with the flybar (the angle anyway).

In bdavidsons posts, he states that the throttle/collective trim should be centered, and the stick all the way down. This may be the problem. You state that all should be centered (all sticks and trims).

Sorry if these are extremely simple questions, but I'm just starting in helis. If the blade angle is set to 0 degrees, with throttle stick and trim at center, wouldn't that be not correct to have the hover of the heli at around mid-throttle position? Thanks,

That's why we have these forums mtracy.

But your assumption is incorrect. In order to hover, your heli will need positive pitch as your blades won't develop enough lift with zero pitch. While in forward flight you will not need as much pitch as the blades act as an airfoil (wing). I believe a standard range of pitch for hovering is around 2.5 to 4.5 degrees. That is why most people here say they hover at around 5/8 to 3/4 stick. With zero pitch at center position you will have the added pitch at 5/8 to 3/4 stick creating enough lift to get you off the ground.

Hope this makes sense.

J

mtracy,

That would be in normal mode - but it is not recommended to do it that way because ultimately you will want to fly in idle-up mode most of the time (probably has something to do also with doing setup near the end of the range, etc). Remember that idle-up mode is when the switch is pulled toward you and disconnect the motor before you do.

Well, something is not right. Some seem to say center all sticks and trims, then set the blades to 0 degrees, while others say throttle trim down, stick centered, and another says trim centered, stick down! I guess everybody has there own way of doing this.

BTW, when I have everything centered, and try to set blades to 0 degrees, I run out of adjustment turns on the rods. And I have checked that my swashplate top is 1/2" from the top of the main shaft. Thanks.

mtracy,

Oops! Sorry, throttle trim should be down. Look at this site for well tried method, but idle-up on.

http://www.bladecprepair.com/man_mr_...djustment#zero

Good luck!

What bdavison is referring to is set-up in normal mode (top left switch will be toward the back). In normal mode, with the trim all the way down and the throttle off, your blades should be at or close to zero pitch. In idle-up mode (top left switch toward the front) the throttle stick will be centered. Raising the throttle from this point applies positive pitch. Lowering throttle past center will apply negative pitch (what you use for inverted flight). It is best to set up the pitch in idle up if you plan to go inverted. When learning to hover you can set up from normal mode and later check it from idle-up when you're ready. Make sure you unplug the motors before doing any adjustments. Initiate the 4-in-1 to center the servos and then unplug the power. Make adjustments, reinitiate the servos and check again. It's very easy to move the servos off center. You can do the set-up with the power on but you have to be very careful not to short something out. I personally don't take that chance. Once everything is set where you think you want it. Plug in the motor and set your tracking according to bdavison's instuctions. Believe it or not, pitch means nothing if the rotors aren't tracking properly.

I moved my flybar weights all the way and it was more responsive. Today I took them completely off, which is even more responsive. Now if I can get the bell-hiller I may try some inverted stuff. OH and BTW my LHS said Horizon is now supposed to have the B/H system in stock very soon?

Has anyone tried to autorotate the blade? I doubt it would work since the motor would have to turn as well. Just curious if the blades will even turn and possibly lessen a crash.

I bought the HB CP2 head from heli-hobby, had to buy the parts separate and they're plastic, buy hey for 20 bucks I thought it was worth a shot. Haven't put it on yet, sorry I can't report how it works. The reason I bpought the autorotation gear was the shaft upgrade. It has a much harder shaft than the stock one and is very easy to change out if you do happen to bend it. You don't have to tear down the whole frame to change the shaft. Just pull a pin, change the shaft, put the pin back in. Don't know if the autorotation works properly or not. Never flew a bigger bird to know what it's supposed to do. I just thought the gear was cool.

what auto-rotation gear and shaft are you talking about?

It's from the Century at Heli-world.com

I thought this might be interesting for you all. I've been having a horrible time with glitching starting about 3 weeks ago. The heli just starts poping up and down when in a stable hover and then of course beats itself into a pulp after I set it down and before I can unplug the battery. Even using my throttle kill on my TX the blades will still spin up to full throttle. I've had the blades strike my wrists on several occasions and one time bent a spindle and also took out some other parts of the head.

So I set out to find a way to fix this. The first thing I did was replace both motors. This did not fix the problem. Then I started unplugging servos one at a time but even with all 3 unplugged I could still get the glitching. Then with the motors unplugged but with the servos plugged in I could see the glitching. So the next step was to take the 4-in-1 apart and replace the receiver portion with a GWS R6NII receiver. I managed to do this in about 15 minutes. I mounted the receiver above what was left of the 4-in-1 but the glitching remained. So I just let the receiver sit off front of the heli just being held on by the wires and low and behold there was not a glitch in sight for a 10 minutes hover test. I've not seen that in weeks.

So I decided that I need to get the receiver away from the 4-in-1. So I took some scrap balsa wood and cut it to the size that would fit behind the battery. I then CA'd the balsa onto the CF spars and then double sided taped the RX right underneath the main gear. Connected everything up and I've now hovered 2 packs down without a major glitch during flight. I still get some minor servo twitching when I set the TX down and go to unplug the pack but other than that the really bad twitching is gone.

I'm not at the point where I would say this completely fixed my problems with glitching but its looking promising. I've got my third pack on the charger and I'll be trying it out again soon...

Lostsoul,

Looks good! With my style of flying I would need some padding on that rx :0)

Did you have the antenna stretched to the back like that before? Maybe it was touching the CF on the LG before. That's a known cause of problems. If it wasn't you can politely disregard