I've made a blade tracking tutorial (It's an MS Word 2003 document right now), since there's not a really complete one that I've found on the web, and the manuals for most of these helicopters are horrible when it comes to telling you how to do it.

Feedback is welcome as long as it's constructive (i.e.; provides information to make the tutorial better).

[link=http://home.comcast.net/~jmemo/How_to_Track_your_helicopter_blades.doc]Main Blade Tracking Tutorial[/link]

I will make it into a web page and edit this post when it's done.

Enjoy!

thats spot on , if only my heli came with these instructions ,actually if it came with any it would be a start....

Thank you for that!!!! I didn't even think about checking the blade tracking. This must be what they meant in the manual when they said "Please check lean tray if keep level when running with both speeds or may be the lamina nip or make the part of the lamina nip were laid back you only need to adjust careful" For some reason your instructions made more sense than the manual?!?!

Very good explaination. I own only electric Helo's so it's pretty simple to just hold the skids and spool it up.

How do they do the big nitro machines?

Many people at my field have large nitro helis. Most of the time they just set it down and spool it up while watching the blades (on the runway of course).

Thanks mimeauja
It is very helpful to us.

Good info.

I just hover at eye level to check blade tracking on nitros.

Ok some constructive criticisim.

There's no good reason to strap down a helicopter.

Second, on most helicopters the ball links are unidirectional and should be installed with the logo facing outward. If your not sure, slip the link onto the ball without snapping it and take a look at how much of the ball is covered. Flip it over and look again, there will usually be one side that covers more of the ball and that is the correct way to put the link on. Doing otherwise can over stress the link and cause inflight failure. This usually leaves you with making one full turn on the collective rods. On Raptors make sure that you make the adjustments on the long links, not the short links. The short links, due to the fulcrum of the upper mixing arms, make a more dramatic change to the blade pitch. This is probably true on some other models as well. The solution to this problem can be had by purchasing rods for the collective adjustment that are threaded in opposite directions on each end with a small turnbuckle in the middle. Zeal made them for the Kyosho helis and there's some places around that have them. You can make very fine collective pitch adjustments with these if need be.

Mark a blade AND blade grip. Use this as the "master" blade. Set the pitch curve up with a pitch gauge and leave it alone. Make all adjustments to the "slave" or unmarked blade for tracking purposes. When taking apart the heli leave the bolt in one of the blade grips that it came out of. On the other blade remove the bolt and put it through the blade and set it aside. This way your master blade will always end up back in the same blade grip.

Dry erase marker works great in place of tracking tape, you can slather up the end of each blade with a different color and wipe it off when your done.

Third. Proper blade grip tightness. The proper way to set blade grip tension is to pick the helicopter up on its side. The blades should stay put but if you give the heli a little bump or shake they should move. If they are flopping around they are too loose and need to be tightened to the point where they can be moved with some force but not easily. Too loose and you run the risk of a boom strike because the blade can lag too far and chop off the tail boom. (been there done that) Too tight and they can't lead and lag and you get vibration. When practicing autos, tighter is better.

Forth, carbon and or fiberglass blades need little or no balancing and usually track dead on if the head is set up correctly. When your done beating wood blades into the dirt, this is the first purchase you should make.

Lastly, tracking and paddle alignment problems can often be confused. If the rotors are out of track on both sides of the disk in flight, this is a blade tracking problem and means each rotor blade is turning in a different plane. If the blades appear to be out of track on one side of the disk only, the problem is usually paddles out of alignment with each other and or the fly bar carrier. Time should be taken to ensure that the paddles are perfectly aligned with each other and in line with the fly bar mechanisim.

mimeauja keep up the good work, helping others is what this is all about. [8D]

Brilliant! I wish I had thought of that. Much easier than tape, and you don't have to worry about cutting two pieces exactly the same and placing them in the exact same spot. Thanks for that little nugget of info.

Thanks guys for all the input, I'll update the tutorial this weekend.

Meantime, feel free to throw out any other suggestions.

Thanks!

Im getting ready to buy a heli thanks for the info