General Equalising blade pitch

[lennyapplegreen]

When you are setting the main blade pitch obviously both blades are set at x degrees or whatever you think is suitable, then when you run up the chopper one blade will be higher ( or lower ) depending on your point of view .
Then you have to correct the blade height by altering the pitch slightly on that blade, this now has blades running with odd pitch , but the weird bit is that the heli runs ok and sounds right too ( I find that when a blade is out of register you can hear the sound isn`t right.)
After a bash or crash I find it also pays to check the tail rotor shaft cause these can get bent only slightly but enough to cause serious vibration, got caught with this recently , was only noticeable as the shaft slowed right down as the bend was only slight.
I will post more HK 450 stuff as I work through it with my intensive use campaign lol.

 

[pj1969]

Are you talking about the blade tracking??? at mid stick, bith blades should be 0 pitch, then once you start going through into positive pitch (up stick) your blades still should be exact. Have you checked tracking?? use a bit of tape different colour to the blade, put in on the end of one blade and spin heli up to mid stick, look at blades and if one is slightly lower than the other, adjust the blade with the tape on and the connecting link by 1 turn at a time until blades are perfectly in line. I always check blades before each flight.

 

[lennyapplegreen]

Sorry, I meant blade tracking, but even so I`ve found that blade tracking is always necessary after setting pitch, its like a musical instrument, when its in tune it sings properly, a good tip also is lowering rotor speed if you are having problems with controlling a beast , this makes it more docile.

 

[Tony]

I can usually set my blade tracking while doing pitch. Just make sure they are good blades and are within .2º of each other. I use a digital pitch gauge which makes my life easier a bit lol.

 

[Lee]

Lenny, you will find with the clones that tracking does need to be looked at. But once you start flying branded models with better tolerances and better blades, tracking becomes less of an issue.
After setting up my Chaos 600 and my Warp on the bench, the tracking was spot on with no adjustment needed.
What i do to make sure everything is as it should be, Is get both blades set at 0º pitch. Then mark one blade as the master blade (don't touch it any more)
then if tracking is needed, only adjust the other blade to get tracking right.
Hope this helps.

 

[lennyapplegreen]

Sounds good to me Lee, so what blades are better, wood or GF or compo ? , thinking that good blades would be better on my 4 rotor 450.
My HKs are more or less Align now cause its easy to get the spares here ( UK ) I`m looking at machining my own parts up for heads and tail rotors.

 

[Tony]

Wood blades have a LOT of flex and the slightest touch to the ground will cause them to splinter. I have never run them and never will GF, or Fiberglass blades are a great choice for those that are just getting into the hobby. they are strong and can take light scruffs if you tip the heli on takeoff or landing. Carbon Fiber blades are by far the best, but you are going to pay for them. They are anywhere between $18-$30 for a set of them depending on how good you want. And when I say set, I mean a pair. If you are using a 4 blade rotor head, you will need two sets. Hope this helps.

 

[Lee]

Check out trex 450 / Blades - ALIGN-TREX.co.uk RC Model Helicopter Specialists in ALIGN, E-Flight, Blade, Goblin, Synergy, ALeeS, Outrage, ELY-Q
They've got Align carbon blades for a tenner.

 

[lennyapplegreen]

Destroyed a good few wood blades learning to fly, like you say pffft -gone , the black plastic ones are more durable but I think now I`m getting there gf will be next but not the cheap ones from China.

 

[RC MAN]

Them woodys do make a mess too, got hit with a piece a blade, and bleed like a stuck pig, lol
Only use cfk (Carbon) now. And havent broke but 1 set. Lucky me, must have gotten a real good set, cause it fell from 30 ft or so, and bent the tail boom,FS,Mainshaft but the blades were perfect.

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Ohh Lenny, I also check my pitch at pos pitch and neg pitch, 0 deg at middle of stick travel, Check also your servos at mid stick are at 90deg to framing, and level your swash plate with the linkages, than your head linkages should be level also,(If your flying a flybar), 0 pitch at this height.
Like this pic.
Everything leveled out.

Frank