Argh.. Blades won't track properly..

[The OTHER Kevin in San Diego]

Swapped out the asymmetrical blades on the Blade CP for the
symmetrical units and ran into a tracking issue. Pulled the pitch
link for the low blade and tweaked it half a turn. The low blade
became the high blade.. "untweaked" the pitch link and swapped blades
in the holders. Tweaked the low blade pitch link and same thing
happened.. I even tried flipping the blades over thinking maybe the
camber on the blades wasn't exactly symmetrical.

Nothing I tweak seems to get these things to track properly. Nothing
bent or tweaked that I can determine. Blades are pretty much dead-on
when it comes to balance and I don't see anything odd with the
covering that might upset the tracking. I thought one blade might be
slightly twisted, but I set 'em both on my glass table, held the
trailing edge down and used a small square to measure several points
along the leading edge. Can't get 'em any straighter than they are..
Maybe I need to twist one a little bit to compensate for the lack of
"precision" in the linkage adjustment?

Out of ideas and getting frustrated..

[The OTHER Kevin in San Diego]

On Sun, 02 Oct 2005 20:38:47 -0700, The OTHER Kevin in San Diego
<skiddz "AT" adelphia "DOT" net> wrote:


>I think I've discovered the problem.. Collective is a bit "sticky"
>around mid-stick. It appears as if the blade holders are rubbing on
>the inside of the paddle links as the blade's pitch is changed. They
>seem to "bind" up a bit then kinda "pop" loose. Gonna relieve part of
>the blade holder "rib" tomorrow to see if I can get some smoother
>operation.
>
>That might also explain why I can't hold altitude very accurately in a
>hover and I chase the collective around..

30 mins with my tools and a jeweler's file and I'm back in business.
Tracking is right on the money and the collective is working much
better. I just had to shave down the "rib" on each side of the holder
to clear the paddle link.. Helo seems to fly a lot smoother now as
well... Now to find some nice windless days....