StrangeRanger

Hi all,
J here. Still in the learning process and doing well. I think anyway. I've been practicing the Radd method and definitely thinks it helps new fliers. But I'm sorely out growing my practice space which is an area of my basement that is about 10' x 20'. I'm working on short hovers etc. but think I'm getting some nasty rotor wash from the walls etc. And yup, even though I knew better, I got ballsy last night and ended up breaking a rotor. Not just taking a nibble out of it this time. No tape is gonna fix this one
Ya, I know, I should be out in the garage or something. But when your thermometer goes down to -30, and that's where the red stuff is sitting, you don't fly outside
Anyway, I'm getting comfortable enough with the controls now that I've started "tweaking" things just a little bit. Adjust the gain on my gyro last night...who knew how that would help! And then got to wondering about blade tightness. When I spin up all goes well till I'm at a certain amount of power, just before lift off, and my heli goes into hula-dance mode, then smooths out again. I've balanced the blades and checked the CG etc., frame itself is balanced but it still does this. I've read A LOT of posts and seen some folks that have their blades screwed down pretty tight and some that have them pretty loose. Not loose enough to fall over when the heli is tipped, but loose so that they move pretty easy. Just wondering if you guys could tell me what ya'll do and why? What have you noticed in having them one way or the other? Thanks, praying for above 0 temps,
j
**EDIT** btw, I forgot to mention that I'm flying a Dragonfly w/ seperates

Banished Outside

I have mine so that they won't moving on their own, but will move by hand i.e. you have to pull the tips out to straighten them, seems smoother to me but I think it's probably experiment until you find a sweet spot!

Steve

bluesilver30

what i do is tighen my blades so they dont move from gravity, then turn the heli on it's side (holding it up in the air) and loosen the blade until gravity lets it fall down. same thing with the other blade.

so the blades are loose on mine, and as the rotor speed picks up they kinda flop around a bit, but once u get going they are centered. the reason i do it this way is because Centrifical Force allows the blades to be perfectly in line with eachother, and it leaves less room for error if you try to center them yourself. this way there is less chance the heli is going to wobble in the air.

and if ur blades hit something, they just slide around. they dont shatter! i havn't broken them yet, even tho i've hit a wood table leg straight on.

StrangeRanger

That's what I was thinking about leaving them kind of loose like bluesilver said. But then I've heard a number of folks say that when you are dealing w/ heli's like the HB and DF that the blades are so small and light to begin w/ that it doesn't really work. Would some of you others put your .02 in please?
j

Super-Hornet

Hi

For me, Initially I go for tight fit for my rotor blade but after a lot of crashes, my rotor blades got chip off some. I now go for tight enought for gravity but loose enought to move by my finger. The reason I do so is because when my heli crash or hit something, the blade will not get heavy impact (just like car bumper). Also when u spin up the rotor, the gravity pull from spinning object will try to alight the blade itself.

Super-Hornet

StrangeRanger

Well, after experimenting last night I've found that I do like mine a bit on the tight side. Tight enough that they don't flop, are moveable with a bit of finger pressure, but tight enough that I need to straighten them by hand. When I had them loosened up I was getting some tail smacks and erratic behavoir when I throttled down very quickly. I liked the way the balanced out when loose, but until I get better I will leave them tightened up.
j

JasonRP

Yeah, I think semi-tight is the way to go.. I tried to have mine loose, and as I would throttle up, I'd get the shakes so bad I'd have to chop the throttle or else I thought it would self-destruct.. Then I found this picallo website:

http://www.pgoelz.com/index.html

This dude has some excellent balance/setup tips. Although they are for the Picallo, I think most if not all the info applies to a HB or other micro chopper. I spent a few minutes balancing my flybar paddles, checked the flybar length on each side (required adjustment in my case), tightened the blades, and carefully lined them up.. Mine are tight to the point where they won't really move with just gravity (if I tip the chopper on it's side), but will move by hand. Now it spools up without the shakes..

Jason

helisport1

Just set up the blades so they dont flop around...

bluesilver30

who cares if the heli flops around while you throttle up? if you set them level and throttle slowly, your heli wont move. i find it much more stable in the air with loose blades.

GRANT ED

DITTO.