Island, why not use the "set level" in the basic menus (on the ikon orientation screen I think)?
Westy, I set mine up by putting the heli on a table. Put a bubble level on the ikon and shimmed the heli skids and tail to get it level. Then put the level on the motor and top of the head, checking both pitch and roll axes for the same bubble positions as on the ikon. Mine were good, but if you find one off from the other, I'd level the heli to top of the head. This way the rotor disc is level to ground.
Then click the "set level" button in the basic menus as mentioned above. This set the elevator and aileron levels in the advanced menu for all three setups.
I checked the performance of it (no power) by switching to the autolevel enabled setup and back again several times. No movement in the swash. Then unshimmed the heli so it was sitting naturally on the table. Again switched back and forth to the autolevel setup setting, the swash moved in the direction I expected it would if it were attempting to get to that level position. While in self level I tilted the heli in the direction it would go based on the swash and it arrived near bubble level again. Then did some tests while I was holding the heli at extreme angles to see what the swash would do and then moved the heli as it would move, all good.
I never performed a motor-running bench test.
Tried it all out at the club field on Tuesday. Got it up to around 70 feet or so, hovered it and flipped to SL. No change. Took hands off sticks, it drifted a bit (didn't pay attention which direction, was more worried about macro scale issues given your and Xokia's experiences with this). Before switching off I tried flying with SL on. It worked, but it fought the inputs. Switched off, then set the heli on a forward flight path with some angle of attack, flipped on SL. It started to correct to a more level attitude, but it was slow, probably because I wasn't that far angled from level to start. Timer was beeping so brought it in, SL off.
As I was testing it came to me: SL may be useful as a bailout feature, I have yet to really test it personally in a severe flight attitude (next time!). However, since you can fly it with it on, I think it may be even more useful as a training aid for normal flight and hovering, with beginners. It will keep them from getting too far out of a safe flight envelope. You can control how much bank to allow with the advanced settings (thats bank in both elevator and ail axes). With the gain you can effectively tell it how hard to fight the stick inputs and thus how fast it will achieve and how aggressively it will maintain that hover position. As the new pilot progresses, you can dial back the gain and up the max bank settings. In many ways the feature turns a CP heli into a coaxial in terms of hover stability and affinity toward hover, or perhaps a FP.
