Okay, so you have practiced on the sim and think you are ready to go flying. Well, I would like to step back and do a couple things to your helicopter so that it will fly a little easier. If you panic and slam the stick down, it won't drop like a rock.
The first thing you will want to do is change your pitch settings. In this write-up, I will use the DX6i as the example transmitter (Tx) as this is the Tx that I use myself. In the Tx, go into the pitch settings menu. You want to change the Normal pitch settings from your current settings (mine are 45, 47.5, 50, 75, 100) to 60, 65, 70, 75, 100. What this is going to do is change your pitch at low stick to about 1° positive pitch. If you chop the throttle (lower the stick in a panic), it will still have a little pitch to let it drop a little slower to the ground. This will save your helicopter from some damage due to hitting the ground too hard.
Another thing that you need to make sure of is how tight your blades are in the grips. In this write-up, I will assume you are using a 450. But, in my videos you will see me flying anything from a 250 to a 600. This is because the 250 can fit in smaller areas; the 450 is a great all around helicopter; and the 600 can withstand the wind when I am flying in strong winds.
When you setup your blade grip tightness, it will be different for each of the 3 helis. The 250 will have a light grip, but will still hold the blades up when you hold the helicopter sideways and the blades horizontal. If you lightly jerk the heli, the blades will drop. The same goes with the 450. But, if you are using a 600, you need to set them a little tighter. They should be tight enough either you have to jerk really hard to get the blades to fall or they don't fall at all. I'm sure you are asking, "Why does the 600 need to be so tight?" It's because of how much weight the head swings around. When you spool up a helicopter, the blades will lag behind the rotor head. On a 250 or 450, you will get a little vibration, then the centrifugal force will force the blades out straight and everything is fine. With a 600 or bigger helicopter, the blades will lag behind so much, and have so much weight, by the time the head has enough centrifugal force to force them straight it's too late. The blades weigh so much they cause the head to go out of balance, the flybar will go all wacky on you, and the heli will tip over. It took me forever when I built my 600 to figure this out. I set the blades just like I did on my 450 and it is way wrong. I finally got tired of it and just tightened the crap out of them. When I did, all of the problems went away and I was able to maiden the helicopter. I found no where said to tighten the grips down like that and it almost cost me my helicopter. So, I hope you have read this before you destroyed your helicopter.
This is pretty much all you have to do in order to get the heli ready for learning how to fly.
