I was confident enough not to worry about training gear, for the first flight I didnt intend going too high and the helicopter construction is quite robust

I turned on the transmitter, plugged in the Li-Poly and listened for the arming beeps of the two ESC's

I temporarily set all pitch values to 0 to both check all linkage movement and run up the new motor. With no pitch set the mainblades turn at a frightening rate and positively scream.

Everything seemed ok so I set the pitch curve to basic settings and got ready

Pushing the throttle forward the heli got light on its skids at just before half throttle then took off.

As I had measred everything carefully the heli flew very well without any real trimming necessary, I was incredibly pleased with its performance so flew around for a while in the lounge without any heart stopping moments.

Now I can get on with building the model and applying finishes.

Helicopter / Radio Setup

The following is a detailed description of how I set up the radio and helicopter.

I am using a Futaba T7CP radio and my Hybrid has its pitch servo to the rear of the mainshaft, other than this the principals are the same for any radio, HE3 type setup.

The pictures are desigend to give a good view of what everything should look like, to get a clearer view click each to get a full size view.

For my setup I have the right roll servo on Ch1, left roll servo on Ch6, elevator servo on Ch2, throttle on Ch3 and Tail on Ch4

SAFETY - if possible use a seperate BEC for safety to disable the ESCs throttle, I dial in all 0's on the throttle curve to prevent any fire up of the motor during setup.

INITIAL SETUP - Start out with a new model on the reciever and select a HR3 - 120' swashplate type, ensure revo mixing is disabled (if using a HH Gyro) and that no exp. or end point settings are present.

Dial in standard PITCH and THROTTLE curves of 0-25-50-75-100

In the SWASH menu set AIL to +50%, ELE to +50% and PIT to -50% (in my case -50% is due to the rear positioning of the elevator servo).

Ensure the throttle stick is set to its lowest position and connect the helicopters battery.

If necessary centre the servo arms temporarily by removing and replacing at the nearest horizontal level, this will be done again later so dont worry too much now.

Check for correct operation of main and tail rotor throttle movements. Note that you may have to hold the throttle stick over to its lowest position (throttle on left of radio hold stick to right) to arm both ESC's. If this does not happen or throttle operates in reverse then use the REVERSE menu to reverse Ch3 or Ch4 or both. In my instance both needed reversing.

Dial in a THROTTLE curve of all 0's to prevent any motor activity or use a seperate BEC and disconnect motor and Ch3.

SWASHPLATE SETUP - Next stage is to setup the movement of the swashplate

Move the Aileron stick right, viewed from the rear the right servo arm should move down and the left servo arm should move up. There are two possible incorrect movement scenarios. The first is the opposite happening if this is the case go to the SWASH menu, select AIL and rather than having +50% set this to -50%, this setting reverses the action of the Aileron stick. The second is incorrect movement of one servo arm only, if this is the case go to the REVERSE menu and reverse the corresponding Ch1 or Ch6 setting. Check for correct operation of left aileron movement and adjust if necessary

Move the Elevator stick forward, the two front servo arms should move downward together and the rear servo arm upward. Again there are two possible incorrect movement scenarios, if the opposite case is happening go to the SWASH menu and select the ELE setting reverse the initial setting of +50% to -50%. If the second case is happening where the servos move in different directions go to the REVERSE menu and reverse the Ch2 setting.

Move the throttle stick forward, all three servos should move downward together, if they move upward go to the SWASH menu select the PIT setting and reverse its initial setting of -50% to +50%.

The swasplate should now move correctly in response to stick movements, at this stage the degree of throw will not be correct so dont worry if any binding takes place.

For this next section refer to the drawing shown to the left .

SERVO ARMS SETUP - Move the throttle stick to its mid position, power off the helicopter. Leave the stick in this position throughout the next section

Where needed remove the servo arms and reposition to the closest horizontal position, use other arms that came with the servos to achieve as close to horizontal as possible.

Check the lengths of the servo links, all three should be the same. The 'ball' center to centre length of my servo links is 26mm, adjust if necessary.

Replace servo arms and links

Power back on the helicopter, use the SUB-TRIM menu to get each servo arm accurately level.

The servo links should be as upright as possible, move to a different servo arm hole if needed, at this point the swashplate should be completely level.

PITCH COMPENSATOR SETUP - The pitch compenstator should have its lower face directly in the middle of is vertical range. If it hasnt use the servo links to adjust by removing the top ball from the swashplate and turning the top portion each exactly the same number of turns to keep each arm the same length

MAIN BLADE PITCH 0' SETTING - At this mid stick position the blade pitch should be 0'. The reason for this is to give some negative setting for 3D work when doing inverted manouvers. To accomplish this accurately you will need a pitch gauge.

Level the flybar and take a reading of the blade pitch concentrating on one blade at a time. To adjust level use the pitch links turning the lower portion to adjust the blade. When complete repeat on the other blade.

RECAP - at this point you should have achieved the following

Radio -

• HR3 swashplate set
• PITCH CURVE - 0-25-50-75-100
• THROTTLE CURVE - 0-0-0-0-0
• SWASH - AIL+/- 50%, ELE +/-50%, PIT +/- 50% (in my case- +50%, +50%, -50%)
• REVERSE - where needed (in my case Ch3 and Ch4)

  Mechanical -

• SERVO ARMS - centered mechanically then adjusted using radio SUBTRIM
• SERVO LINKS - adjusted to same length and as near to 90' angle to servo links as possible
• SWASHPLATE - level
• PITCH COMPENSATOR - in middle of its vertical range on its locating pins
• MAIN BLADES - adjusted to 0' pitch using pitch link

MAXIMUM POSITIVE PITCH SETTING - this stage sets the maximum positive blade pitch which should be no more than 10'

Reconnect the helicopter battery and apply full throttle on the radio. Use a pitch gauge to measure the degree of positive pitch available.

To adjust this go to the SWASH menu and select the PIT setting. Adjust this setting up or down to achieve 10' of positive pitch. The PIT setting determines the maximum amount of pitch available, keep adjusting until the desired pitch is obtained.

In my case a PIT value of -25% gave the 10', this will differ in almost every case.

MAXIMUM NEGATIVE PITCH CHECK - this stage checks the maximum negative blade pitch which should match the maximum positive of 10'

Apply full off throttle. Use a pitch gauge to check the degree of negative pitch which should be 10'

If it isnt then you will need to start over with the process, finely tuning each setting until you achieve the correct results.

Note that such a high value for negative pitch will only be needed if you intend doing aggresive 3D manouvers flying inverted, only the maximum positive pitch setting of 10' is important at this stage.

It is also possible to control the amount of negative pitch using the radio via the Pitch Curve.

AILERON MAXIMUM TRAVEL SETTING - this stage sets the amount of travel of the two aileron servo arms. This stage is important to give the correct degree of control - too narrow a setting gives little control leading to large stick inputs, too wide a setting leads to over correction and a difficult helicopter to control. It is also important to ensure no binding of any control linkages or arms.

Apply full throttle. Enter the SWASH menu and select the AIL setting. Increase this setting and watch the result when applying left and right aileron stick, the higher the number in a positive or negative direction increases the throw of the servo arms, the lower the number the shorter the throw. Select a value that gives the maximum amount of throw but does not go anywhere near binding the servo links..

Repeat the process for a full off throttle position checking that nothing binds at all cyclic stick extreme movements but do not exceed the maximum setting previously set, if needed reduce the setting. In my case the optimum setting for this value is +60%.

This value may be adjusted later to fine tune the performance of the heli but dont exceed this as a maximum.

The two drawings below show a left and right aileron movement and what happens to all the components during the manouver, click the picture to get a better view

ELEVATOR MAXIMUM TRAVEL SETTING - this stage sets the amount of travel of all three servos during an elevator stick movement. In this case the two front servos act together and therefore both need to be checked.

Apply full throttle. Again enter the SWASH menu and select the ELE setting. Increase this setting and watch the result when applying fore and aft elevator stick. As before select a value that gives the maximum amount of throw without any binding.

Apply full off throttle and repeat the process for all cyclic extreme movements. In my case the optimum setting for this value is +60% which again may be adjusted down to fine tune performance.

The two drawings below show a fore and aft elevator movement and what happens to all components during the manouver, click the picture to get a better view.

THROTTLE AND PITCH CURVES - Both these settings are a matter of trial and error, the ideal seems almost impossible, that is to have sufficient rotor RPM to give a nicely balanced and controllable heli without bogging the motor or without over reving and wasting energy. I am using a 14 tooth main gear so I expect quite high rotor head speeds.

A good starting point for the throttle curve matching the setup above is 0-40-70-85-100, this brings in the throttle earlier than the standard 0-25-50-75-100 setting. Do this via the TH-CV menu dialing in each value at the 5 available curve settings P1 = 0%, P2 = 40%, P3 = 70%, P4 = 85%, P5 = 100%.

Because the helicopter has been setup up with 0' pitch at mid throttle the pitch curve settings will range between 50% and 100% that is for normal flight you would assume 0' of pitch at 0 throttle. However you may wish to have 1' or 2' of negative pitch at 0 throttle (in this case start with a figure less than 50% at setting at P1. The purpose of this is to bring the helicopter down and prevent something called 'ballooning' particularly when flying outside, the helicopter lifts when faced with an updraft and can be quite difficult to bring down under control, the negative pitch 'drills' the helicopter down under these circumstances. However for learning I would advise 0' pitch as it can be difficult to stop the helicopter accidentally slamming into the ground with negative pitch dialled in.

A typical pitch curve using these parameters would be 50-60-73-86-100, this woudl increase the pitch gradually through the range to 10' and 100% throttle.

In my case after experimentation I stuck with a throttle curve of 0-40-70-85-100 and found a pitch curve of 55-65-78-91-100 to operate the best throughout the range. This is however with SAB blades which are longer but narrower in chord giving different characteristics plus a helicopter that is heavier that the standard Hornet. Do this via the PI-CV menu dialing in each value at the 5 available curve settings P1 = 50%, P2 = 60%, P3 = 73%, P4 = 86%, P5 = 100%

The graph to the left shows the two curves. to the right is shown the actual pitch in degrees, eg at