I have a question
 

I have a raptor 30 v2. I crashed last week now it does not fly the same. Before it came up at half throttle now it comes up at nearly 3/4 throttle. My friend set the pitch and test flew it between rain showers. He thought it was ok but it's just not the same. My question is on the frame is a scale (I guess this is for pitch) it is not even close to what the book says. He set the pitch with a pitch guage so is this the same as using the scale just a diffrent way of doing it? Should it be set up per the book using the scale then use the pitch guage to fine tune it ? Should the pitch be set using the pitch guage and not worry about the scale. As you can tell Iam new to helicopters been flying r/c airplanes for about ten years. I have a 9 cap futaba radio. My friend let me borrow his reflex sim. but my computer must not have enough memory the screen was half white the other half was ok. While trying some of the airplanes on the sim. I found it not even close to the real r/c aircraft.

RE: I have a question
 

The scale on the heli is useless if its not calibrated with a pitch gauge.

When in doubt go with the pitch gauge.

http://www.raptortechnique.com for some good Rappy reading.

RE: I have a question
 

Another thing is, with the gauge on the helicopter... If your double links that you use to set the tracking are too far out, or too far in, it will affect the final output.

RE: I have a question
 

On a very beginner setup, the tendency is to achieve hover pitch/power about mid-stick (in NORMAL mode). Once you graduate from just hovering and flying around, pilots tend to set their normal mode pitch/power (at least mid-stick to full forward) to reflect what their Idle Up modes are set to (ie 0 pitch at mid-stick and hover around 3/4 stick). Your friend might have set your Normal pitch/power curve up the way an advanced pilot would have theirs. Might want to ask your friend about this.
The scale represents the positioning of your pitch servo NOT the actual pitch of the blades. As barracudahockey said, the frame gage is only accurate if you adjust your blades actual pitch to the same as what the frame gage is reading. So ... you have to measure your blades pitch with a pitch gage in order to see if the blades are set to what the frame gage reads.
Again ... the frame gage is used just as a reference point to where your pitch servo is. It CAN NOT be used to set the actual blade pitch ... this requires a pitch gage.
These are nice radios except that the left stick (assuming mode 2) is ratcheted ('bumpy') on the aircraft version (9CA). In order to have any success in heli flight, this "bumpy - ness" needs to be removed so that the stick can move smoothly (like the 9CH version).

Good Luck,
d.tipton

RE: I have a question
 

Does that mean spring return to center, or jus non ratcheted by still stays where you put it? I was wondering about that, as i have a bumpy control... Kind of annoying when each little click is about 3 steps on the controllers readout...

RE: I have a question
 

Just take the back off the radio and put a peace of fuel tubing over the little metal clicker, that will make your throttle/collective slide nice and smooth. Bend the tab a little with your figures if the fuel tube makes it a little to tight, you want your throttle to slide nice and free, not to tight.

RE: I have a question
 

That "annoyance" is what I'm talking about, however, don't expect to just put the stick somewhere and leave it alone (like you would with an airplane). You will need to make constant corrections with the collective so it's not really "set it and forget it" but it's definitely not spring returned. Make the little mod that Charlie was describing and it'll smooth things out.

This why I will probably never buy an "A" TX again (my first TX is an old 6XA w/bumps defeated). My main TX is a 9CH.

Good Luck,
d.tipton

RE: I have a question
 

Thanks for the timely response . This helps somewhat and Iam sorry about the reflex sim. comment, just my opinion. If you use one it will save you a lot of money.

RE: I have a question
 

It seems my JR Xp6102 actually came with a smooth ratchet as well as the bumpy one. But my ratchet has worn down all the middle bumps (i had it pretty stiff) and now it has lumps at the top and bottom end of the stick. If i put on the smooth ratchet its nice in the middle, but at the bottom it has a big bump. It hits at about 10% stick and jumps a bigger step than it did with the ratchet. Also with the supplied smooth ratchet i couldn't adjust the tension at all, which was rather loose for my taste. The bar was bent so that adjustment seemed impossible anyway, if the screw itself hadn't been bottoming out (before doing anything). Gah so confusing. I wonder if i could flip the stick holder things over... left to right, since the stick on the right has a ratchet that isn't worn down yet. I'd just have to unplug the sticks... take then out, flip them, put them back, and plug them the right way. Maybe i'll try the fuel tubing first, see if i still have the bump =P.

As a word of caution. When the instructions say to remove the battery when adjusting stick tension, do listen. I was being lazy and didn't remove it... being so used to waterproof circuits (in paintball). I dropped a screw and shorted something, blowing the fuse. In paintball it wouldn't have shorted unless i really dug into the circuit because of the waterproofing. Now i need to get a new fuse and hope that was the only damage i caused. Question: What fuse is it? On the JR site they sell 3A replacement fuses. I know the size is 5mm x 20mm. Ideally the company should know their product... but the fuse itself has a .3A rating, or 300mA, written on the cap; not 3A. I personally would assume the web designer is clueless and wrote the wrong thing, but if anyone has experience, please do tell. If it means anything to anybody, this is what I read on the fuse: S IE.3A/250V