Originally Posted by Fighting Gravity

Excellent how-to manual.

Thanks alot SSG.

Now I have to try to beat your 17 seconds. You set the bar high but it's something to shoot for. (heck, I'd be thrilled with 10 seconds)

Scott

Well it seemed like it was at least a minute or two at the time but the stop watch only said 17 seconds. When you get it all balanced out - its an amazing little helicoptor!

Well I went though all the stuff in Scott's PDF and the difference is indeed amazing. Being a newbie, all I want is to actually **see** this mythical 2 second hover - unfortunately I still haven't. But I'm getting close . . .

My problem is mostly the newbie pendulum effect, back and forth, to and fro, never stationary. I completely broke down the BCP, worked everything in the head over for smoothness and loose action, balanced until I'm blind, but the first flight today I still had a bad pendulum. It turns out one of my bell-hiller pivots was a little tight, took it in and shaved it a little so it's loosey-goosey, and that in itself was a tenfold improvement.

So in addition to balancing, I learned all the parts must be loose and one side shouldn't have more drag than the other, anywhere.

But it still yo-yo's and still wants to wander, I can keep it in a 3-foot circle and rotate 90 degrees to either side doing so but man it's a lot of work. Can't be a sticky collective because it's a bell-hiller, but **something** must be sticking. Maybe it's my brain.

Here's some pics of my balancer per Scott's instructions, thanks man this is the first big move toward actually flying since I started.

hi SSG Scott ,
really nice howto!! that is so important to balace and trim the heli.
thank for your contribution!!!

Originally Posted by rocknbil

But it still yo-yo's and still wants to wander, I can keep it in a 3-foot circle and rotate 90 degrees to either side doing so but man it's a lot of work. Can't be a sticky collective because it's a bell-hiller, but **something** must be sticking. Maybe it's my brain.

Nice photos rocknbil

Sounds like you're doing quite well. You're right, the balancing really makes a difference.

Originally Posted by rocknbil

Well I went though all the stuff in Scott's PDF and the difference is indeed amazing. Being a newbie, all I want is to actually **see** this mythical 2 second hover - unfortunately I still haven't. But I'm getting close . . .

My problem is mostly the newbie pendulum effect, back and forth, to and fro, never stationary. I completely broke down the BCP, worked everything in the head over for smoothness and loose action, balanced until I'm blind, but the first flight today I still had a bad pendulum. It turns out one of my bell-hiller pivots was a little tight, took it in and shaved it a little so it's loosey-goosey, and that in itself was a tenfold improvement.

So in addition to balancing, I learned all the parts must be loose and one side shouldn't have more drag than the other, anywhere.

But it still yo-yo's and still wants to wander, I can keep it in a 3-foot circle and rotate 90 degrees to either side doing so but man it's a lot of work. Can't be a sticky collective because it's a bell-hiller, but **something** must be sticking. Maybe it's my brain.

Here's some pics of my balancer per Scott's instructions, thanks man this is the first big move toward actually flying since I started.

Wow that sure is a snazzy balancer! You could probably sell those things! Nice Job and well done!

-Scott

Scott,
Is the procedure the same for FP micro heli?

I tried attaching my FP main shaft minus the main blade to the drill and powered it up. The paddle wobbled around a lot.

-shim

Originally Posted by shim

Scott,
Is the procedure the same for FP micro heli?

I tried attaching my FP main shaft minus the main blade to the drill and powered it up. The paddle wobbled around a lot.

-shim

Yes the proceedure is pretty much all the same. I hven't looked at a FP head in a month or two. Are the pitch links attached to the swash plate? I will have to try to get a look at a head up close to see if I can figure out what might be happening .

-Scott

I followed the pdf and I still have a little wobble at low rpms but it smooths out at faster rpms. During the procedure I was playing with the pitch links and discovered that if i made the right swashplate link shorter,(the one by the back side of the front servo) it would rub against the front servo. The threads on the link would rub against the screw on the servo cover. Got it adjusted so that it don't rub anymore. I discovered it while i was trying to lower the whole swashplate on the shaft. I was trying this because it don't seem like I have a lot of blade movement when I throttle up.

So any way I got everything balanced and then fired up the bird and at half throttle it lept off the ground straight up, I wasn't expecting it and killed the throttle and it landed with no issues. (it has never left the ground at half throttle before, The balancing helped quite a bit) So I check the blade tracking next and see I need to track it. so I make the adjustments and then power up again and this time it don't come off the ground at half throttle. I need to have it around 75% throttle before it gets lite on the skids and starts to drift left. I don't have a pitch gauge yet, but it would seem that I need to add somemore positive pitch in. Is that correct?

Thanks,

Originally Posted by 67flyer

I followed the pdf and I still have a little wobble at low rpms but it smooths out at faster rpms. During the procedure I was playing with the pitch links and discovered that if i made the right swashplate link shorter,(the one by the back side of the front servo) it would rub against the front servo. The threads on the link would rub against the screw on the servo cover. Got it adjusted so that it don't rub anymore. I discovered it while i was trying to lower the whole swashplate on the shaft. I was trying this because it don't seem like I have a lot of blade movement when I throttle up.

So any way I got everything balanced and then fired up the bird and at half throttle it lept off the ground straight up, I wasn't expecting it and killed the throttle and it landed with no issues. (it has never left the ground at half throttle before, The balancing helped quite a bit) So I check the blade tracking next and see I need to track it. so I make the adjustments and then power up again and this time it don't come off the ground at half throttle. I need to have it around 75% throttle before it gets lite on the skids and starts to drift left. I don't have a pitch gauge yet, but it would seem that I need to add somemore positive pitch in. Is that correct?

Thanks,

Yes- you are certainly on the right track! Just give both pitch change links a 1 turn adjustment so that it will start coming up into a hover when the throttle is half way up. Thats the easy way to do it with out a pitch guage. The wanting to slide left until the heli is off the ground is normal and is part of the physics of of these little helis (Gryoscopic procession). As soon as your heli rises above the ground, recenter your cyclic controls to maintain the hover in place.

The low speed vibrations are normal as the frame and bearings, landing gear all come in to play at very low rotor RPMs. For those of you who just love math- its all explained by something called differential equations and fourier analysis... Sorry the geek in me sometimes leaks out....

-Scott

I just recently went dual motor on tail of BCP. I used the slick looking blue anodized tail housing and it works beautifully except now I am trying to figure how to get the heli balanced again. With a 1300 lipo as far forward as possible in forward canopy it just barely balances level. When I go to my 900 lipos as far forward as posible it is quite tail heavy. Anybody had this problem and have any suggestions short of leading the nose? thanks!

Shorten the tail?

Paul

Originally Posted by ThePheonix

Shorten the tail?

Paul

Seriously?

Well done. Thanks.

Originally Posted by ThePheonix

Shorten the tail?

Paul

You can shorten the tail boom, or add more weight to the nose

Or you can try what I did- I used part of a popsicle stick and exended it forward on the battery tray so I could mount the battery way forward (on the outer end of the popsicle stick)in the very nose of the canopy. Do I need pictures to explain this better?

-Scott

On the super landing gear from heli direct the carbon battery mounting rods are long enough to hang the battery way far forward. I cut the origional battery mount off the stock carbon rods and then slid it on the super landing gear carbon rods infront of the first frame/landing gear interface piece. Make sense ?

Anyways, I had to do that just to get the heli to balance out evenly front to rear, but then the body wouldn't fit over on the CP2 canopy so I ended up cutting out slots on either side of the front of the canopy so the battery corners can stick out. It doesn't look too bad and will probably give a little better cooling to the battery. Has anyone else encountered this problem?

BTW Scott your method for balancing the heli is great, I can't say I've really flown my new cp2 much at all in the air (working on "radds school for rotary flight" right now). But the things is dead smooth while spooling up and doesn't vibrate hardly at all even at the slowest rpms.

I didn't crash once today but I managed to bend my main shaft twice . Apparently you cant pick the heli up by the rotor head too quick or put any sideways pressure on the heli (such as swinging it a little bit while walking) because the main shaft will bend. It took me 2 times to realize why this happened haha. I have to say my preferred method for straightening the main shaft is to completly remove the shaft and use a rubber mallet on glass to pound it straight. The mallet wont damage the bar because its too soft, and the glass is super flat resulting in a very true main shaft. Bending it back as you suggested works just as well for getting it straight but it was much harder for met to do, I liked the cave man method much better .