I bought my first heli (Dragonfly Micro) and I am having trouble with the set-up. I have balanced the blades and trimmed the controls(to my newby abilities). The main rotor still causes it to shake until about 1/3 throttle making it hard to lift off. It also leans to the side and drifts around out of control once I leave the ground making a hover impossible. I believe this is due to the unstability of the air close to the ground. What tips do you have that might help me get off the ground.

If blades are balanced then check the tracking (use a bit of bright coloured tape on the end of one of the blades). Always bend the higher blade down to keep the head speed up. Be careful not to snap the blades. You can use a heat gun to assist.

As for the drifting. Try to balance a roller bearing on a sheet of glass and you are half way there since you also need to worry about inertia as it falls and the tail spinning around making you lose orientation.

Yes it is easier when you are 3ft off the ground but only once your fingers are trained to react quickly.

Have a play on the FMS simulator first. If you have the Zenshua controller, order a pc cable and use PPJoy to configure... (a quick search for ppjoy on this forum will get you going)

I found that if the bolts holding the blades are too loose then the rotational acceleration would pivot the blades backwards and set up a bad instability. If you say that it stops shaking after 1/3 throttle then this is most likely the issue as centripetal force eventually pulls out the blades to make them in line with the head brace again. I had this happen when I upgraded the motor and found it had so much acceleration that it pivoted the blades backwards. After tightening the bolts all was ok with the shakes.

To check if this is what is happening increase the throttle the same way you have been but before you get light on the skids slowly decrease the throttle back to zero and look to see if the blades are straight out any more. If they have twisted backwards from the pivot point then straighten them back out and tighten the screws. Should be a straight line from tip to tip.

As jbalat says, get the tracking and pitch right as well. And definitely spend some serious time using FMS. Helped me enormously.

Next time you go for the hover give the throttle a more rapid increase to pop the heli off the ground (once you have the screws tightened) rather than slowly easing it off the ground. Also give a bit of right aileron input as it comes off the ground and then ease off a bit on the right aileron once you are over a foot off the ground. It will naturally float about a foot off the ground provided you haven't given it too much power. Ground effect creates a compressed pocket of air at this height. Also gives the tail a more dense region of air to blow against so you end up with more left drift at this height.

Once you get used to reacting to it's need to drift around you will get a feel for where you have a tendency to hold the stick most of the time. If you find that the ail/ele stick is mostly forward/right then increase the trim settings up and right (after you land) till you find that the stick is mostly centered in a hover. You will always find that right trim is required on CW rotating heli's. All DF heli's are tail heavy unless you construct a different battery mount that is further forward so most likely you will need forward trim on the elevator.

If you sense an impending collision with the wall ease off the throttle to get it down rapidly but don't slam the throttle down quickly. I did this a number of times and busted up the skid struts on the ground impact.

Hope that helps.

Could you tell me what type of set up you used for a so called hop up from the stock EM 150 engine. I am curious because I plan on getting the bigger EM300 motor available and a lipo battery once I get good with the stock set up. I figure i'll hammer away at this and then when I get good hop it up and have some real fun. My thing is I am not new to RC by a long shot but to electrics I am, and it would seem to make more sense instead of getting the brushed em300 maybe i would look into a brushless increase flight time + effiency i wouldnt mind spending a bit more to get an awesome engine and a flight time that would increase prob double. I am ignorant as to what would run on what set up. I dont want to overpower the heli or use an engine that would burn out on the lipo, or burn out the ESC. Could you tell me the set you have for yours so at least I have a guide line to go by? and perhaps where you purchased the products? Thanks in advance. ---- Joe

look at my signiture. thats what i got...except I also have a 2100mah 2cell pack. I bought most from www.helihobby.com

Sorry man I have the mini Dragonfly my reply was for eheheh. Not to down play your set up but I want to keep apples to apples. Thanks anyway