General Setting Proper Blade Pitch

Tony

Staff member
I have written this many times in different threads but it always gets buried in the posts and is very hard to find. It's also one of the most asked questions here on RCH. So I thought I would do a dedicated STICKY to explain exactly how to setup correct blade pitch on a CCPM helicopter.

YOU WILL NEED A PITCH GAUGE! If you don't have a pitch gauge, GET ONE! It's a MUST HAVE tool for any CCPM Helicopter owner

First and foremost you must set your Tx up correctly. Go into your pitch settings and set them to the following.

Normal Mode (45, 47.5, 50, 75, 100)
Idle up (0, 25, 50, 75, 100)

Make sure you have the same "Idle Up" pitch curve on your Throttle Hold as well. This way, if you have to hit T-Hold you will still have a FULL range of pitch to help save the heli in an emergency. Your Throttle Curve for Throttle Hold should be ALL 0's across the board. This will keep the throttle OFF when T-Hold is on.

Now that you have the pitch curve setup, you have your throttle hold on so the motor will not spin, you need to do one more thing. Unplug two of the three wires going to the motor. This will guarantee the motor will not spin up on you. After all we are going to be doing all of this in idle up.

Flip your Idle Up Switch into Idle up. Put your throttle stick on your Tx to Mid stick, or 50% throttle. Now look at the servo arms on the cyclic/collective. They should be at exactly 90º to the SWASH LINKS. NOT The servo body. If your arms are not at 90º to the links, use sub trim to get them there. Your trim tabs should be centered.

Once you are positive that your servo arms are at 90º to the links, we are ready to check the blade pitch.

Put your pitch gauge on the blade and level your flybar (if you have one. If not, use your alignment rod that was included with your kit). At mid stick, where you should be, you should have 0º of pitch. If you don't, adjust your blade grip links until you do. Once you are at 0º of pitch, you can move on.

After setting 0º pitch at mid stick, raise your throttle all the way up. Note the amount of pitch on your blades. You should have AT LEAST 10º of positive pitch (trailing edge down). Now lower your throttle stick all the way down and check your pitch again, but this time in the negative (trailing edge up).

If you have the exact same pitch in both full positive and full negative and 0º at mid stick, then you are done. If not, then continue on.

If you have more positive pitch than negative, then your swash plate is too high. You will need to remove your links from the swash going to your servos and lower the swash 1 turn. Once you get your links adjusted, recheck your pitch settings starting with Mid stick above, then positive then negative.

If you have more negative pitch than positive, then your swash is too low. You will need to remove your links from your swash going to your servos and extend them 1 turn. Once your links are adjusted, recheck your pitch settings starting with Mid stick above, then positive then negative.

Make sure after every adjustment you are putting your Tx back to mid stick (50% throttle) and adjusting the blade grip links to achieve 0º pitch.

Once you have the exact same pitch both positive and negative, check the other blade. You should have exactly the same readings from it that you got on the previous blade.

If you are not getting from 10º to 14º of pitch in both the positive and negative positions, you will need to go into your swash mix and raise or lower the Pitch settings. If you are at 60, then go to 70, if you are at -60, then go to -70 and so on until you get to AT LEAST 10º of pitch in each direction. Adjusting the swash mix will adjust the FULL RANGE of pitch, so check it after you make your adjustment.

I suggest that new pilots and sport fliers only go with 10º-11º of pitch. I myself run 12º of pitch and it works out pretty well for me. You need to adjust this to your flying style.

If you have any questions, just post them below. We are always here to help.
 

breeze400

Spagetti Pilot
When I'm working on my 600, I have two batteries. One for the motor and one or the RX and servos. So if I leave the motor battery disconnected I can adjust everything without disconnecting the motor wires.
 

Tony

Staff member
Yup, running a Rx batt only will allow you to leave the motor plugged in. But for those with 250's, and 450's, there is no room for another battery.
 

Lee

Well-Known Member
You don't need to mount the battery. Its just for setting up the servos/RX without needing to plug in the motor. Thats what i do to. No worries about accidental motor spool up. :thumbsup:
 

Tony

Staff member
yeah, I thought about that after I read it lol. IT's a very good idea. And you can pick up a cheap Rx pack pretty inexpensively now days.
 

callsign4223

Staff member
More info on the RX pack please, my motor wires on the blade 400 are a PITA to get to, enough so that I generally don't unplug them(I know, asking for stitches) and I'm just careful with the throttle hold.
 

Derek

Well-Known Member
This is an awesome sticky, Tony! Very nice! I have to work tonight but I'll be going over my heli this weekend with your instructions and I'm looking for some good flights while I'm off. Then I gotta get back to my big plane. That 20' wingspan isn't gonna finish itself, lol.
 

RandyDSok

Well-Known Member
More info on the RX pack please, my motor wires on the blade 400 are a PITA to get to, enough so that I generally don't unplug them(I know, asking for stitches) and I'm just careful with the throttle hold.

They are available at just about any hobby shop. The voltage you need will depend on the voltage requirements of your receiver and/or servos... standard types are 4.8v-6v but with some life packs using 6.6v is more standard.

For a simple workbench pack ( I wouldn't recommend these for flight since the batteries may come out of the holder )... get a 4 AA cell battery holder and pick up either some 1.5v AA alkaline batteries ( for 6v ) or 1.2v rechargable nihm batteries ( for 4.8v ). Then attach a standard servo connector onto the power leads. Your receiver will either have a dedicated port or you can use any empty channel to plug them into... The outside wires of the servo leads are the positive/negative leads typically but check your manual for your receiver for the proper polarity before you plug them in.
 
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RandyDSok

Well-Known Member
I just realized that I said that the +- leads were on the outside of the servo connector and that is wrong... ( even if I said to check the manual first )

The positive lead is in the center hole and the negative lead on one of the outer holes... the other outer hole is for the signal line that controls the servo itself.
 

Tony

Staff member
What Randy stated is correct. I would HIGHLY suggest just getting the 1.2v rechargeable for 4.8v. This is safe for ALL servos that I know about. You can do as stated and just plug the pack into ANY slot that is available, not just the battery slot and it will power all ports on the Rx. If you don't have any open ports, unplug your ESC and plug it in there.

Also as Randy stated, you can pick up that battery pack at any radio shack and then just find an old servo or servo extension and solder on the plug to plug it into the Rx.
 

Manard

New Member
Hey tony I have all the pitch curves you have said to set at and at half throttle I have 0 pitch 9 at full and like -1 at no throttle. When I lower the swash it's makes the pitch go negative at half throttle and keeps going negative I'd keep lowering it
 

Tony

Staff member
That is correct. with the pitch curve of 45 47.5 50 75 100 you will get about -2º of pitch at low stick. But, you should check your pitch with throttle hold on with a linear pitch curve and you should have the same positive and negative pitch with 0 at mid stick. If you have more positive pitch, then your swash is too high. More negative, then your swash is too low. After adjusting the swash linkages, you will have to reset your mid stick settings on teh head to get back to 0, then try it again. It can take a while, but it's worth it in the end when you have a great flying heli.
 

Tony

Staff member
My pleasure. Let me know if you have any issues and post up what they are. The more information of what people are having issues with, the more detailed I can make my videos.
 

Island Breeze

Senior Rc-Help Member
Tony if I set my values at 45, 45.5, 50, 75 and 100 as stated and when I set up my pitch for low that will not get me my -11 that i am lookig for, correct! shouldnt i set up mechanically first to get my -11 and +11 first and then i can reduce my neg pitch after.
 

Tony

Staff member
That is exactly right. However, I always set up the Normal and Idle Up, then I setup the throttle hold which has the same linear pitch curve as idle up. Then I use throttle hold to set my blade pitch setup. You just want to make sure that 1. your motor will NOT spin up when doing the blade pitch setup and 2. you have a linear pitch curve where mid stick is 50%.
 

Island Breeze

Senior Rc-Help Member
Whew! I thought i had to redo my settings. thanks and you are correct on the throttle hold settings. I set mine the same way using throttle hold and for my first two setups (Mechanically)i forgot to set the pitch on TH and i ended up drinking more beer in one night cause of that mistake. "Lesson Learn"..
 
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