Anyone who has built and tuned a heli knows he has one tool he can't do without. And for noobies, it is a must have. It's called a main blade pitch gauge.
We've seen these in an assortment of shapes and sizes. Often they are made from plastic. You clamp these on the blades, level out the flybar and eyeball the gauge's top edge with the flybar. Not an easy task for someone with "four" eyes. Then you manipulate the swing arm with one hand then hold the flybar level with the other. An easy task... if you are an octopus!
Thankfully grnbrg (an RCG member) thought of this paper pitch gauge. The grnbrg's Universal Paper Blade Pitch Gauge can be downloaded
here.
I printed one out on office paper and cut it out with a box cutter. Once folded, clipped on with paper clips, and strung with a weighted (old ball bearing) string, I was good to go.
Prep work was easy. I checked my work table with a bubble level and found it to be level. I laid my 450 heli on the table and used a right triangle to verify that the main shaft was perpendicular to the table. I was all set.
Pitch readings was easy. Easier actually than a plastic gauge. I just kept the flybar level. I proceeded to program my transmitter to get zero pitch at midstick. I did some work with the swash mix , endpoints, and trim to get a balanced cyclic and correct collective range. Done.
Compared to my plastic gauge, I saw a few anomalies in my settings. The grnbrg's Universal Paper Blade Pitch Gauge offered better resolution because of the longer radius of the meter swing. You can actually see in between degrees.
Now my heli is better than ever. What started as a curiosity turned out to be a new member of my tool box.