Lets start a thread on the things you do when you first put a copter together .
I think this could be really helpful so lets keep the chit chat down and stick
with helpful hints to make our flying experience more enjoyable with more
time in the air and less time in the workshop fixing

First hint from me .
Bought all the Align metal head parts . Found a screw coming out ot one
of the ball links . Took all that ball links out , found only two ball links with
loctite on them l , put loctite on all ball link screws that fit onto metal parts .

1)in regards to ball links:
they go on 1 way. the circle marked side is on the outside.

2)X400 mainshaft offset:
the short half goes on top.

3) !!**SEE BELOW**!!

Glue All Swashplates on all helis

Glue the outer race of the bearing to the plastic, and the inner race of the bearing to the inner plastic.
You can see here where the swash was seperating on the inner and outer part.
Not a good thing while flying.
This isnt just a problem with plastic swashes, a loose fitting Aluminum unit can also have the bearing slip out easily...
CHECK THEM!!!

"Picture courtesy of Thanh"

Smooth out the ratchet in the throttle.

Make sure the lash is correct between the motor pinion and the main gear .

As far as I have read in the manual , use a piece of paper between the gears
when tightening the motor mount screws . That should give you the right lash.
To tight can and you could loose power to burning up a motor .

A possibly nice way to set belt tension (on a Trex). Assemble the heli, with the belt reasonably tight (as per the insdtructions). Then, loosen the stay screws (top of horizontal stab) and the four screws holding the tail boom into the chassis. The boom will move into the chassis due to tension in the belt. Tighten up the screws.

Belt tension will now be beautifully low, easily allowing spinning the main rotor (using the one-way) by turning the tail rotor, yet tight enough not to skip teeth.

(Trex belt tension) But you do not want the tension too loose as it seems to cause wagging of the tail in some configurations. Loose is good but if you get wagging that does not want to go away with gyro gain adjustment (and your head speed is high enough) then tighten it up a little.

OK how bout: tighten blades on fp helis to avoid death wobble!!

Originally Posted by Eeeeky

OK how bout: tighten blades on fp helis to avoid death wobble!!

The purpose of loosely tightening the blades is to allow them to center and balance themselves by the centripetal force....if you over-tighten them, how can they center themselves?

I tried that, here's y not to do it:
_if you tighten them as to NOT allow any movement, and the orientation of the blades happens to be not balanced, then at high speed, your heli WILL have "death wobbles".....and the chance of tightening them at the correct balanced position is 1/infinity (there's ONLY ONE correct position!!!)

The best to attempt though is:

snuggle tighten them, then go mid thro, then slowly (yes VERY SLOWLY) bring thro to zero, this way your blades are automatically balanced by the rotational/centripetal force...then carefully tighten them...i find this hard bc when you tighten the nuts, the blades tend to move.

[QUOTE=jh4db536]1)in regards to ball links:
they go on 1 way. the circle marked side is on the outside.

This is right for new ball links but once they wear a bit and become loose i've turned them around to get a snug fit again, only for the ones that are under centrifugal force trying to throw them out!

I believe it was Will who suggested that actually fitting the links on with the "A" on the inside makes sense, provided you also clip them on from the back, and then put the screw through. I have decided that I will try to avoid ever popping a link off, but instead undo the screw, so the link doesn't get looser each time...

But then again, a spare bag of links is so cheap, maybe the thing to do is treat them as consumables...

TRex:
The aluminum balls on the TRex wear out sooner than you think due to friction with the plastic links. Burnish them with powdered graphite or better yet, powdered Molybdenum Sulphide. Don't use a 'wet' lubricant as it only attracts dirt/dust. If you can find them, steel balls would be better. (hold back on the jokes please).

This does not always apply but a second (or third) shim washer between the tailbox and the tail pitch control horn may be needed. This keeps the two (and especially the protruding screw from the ball link) from binding.


Nice thread idea Happy, you may want to create one for each brand of micro heli...

You don't need any oil on anything on the T-Rex except the tail shaft. On a fuel heli this is lubricated by all the crap flying out of the exhaust, but on the T-Rex the brass bushing might wear down the middle of the shaft, causing the slider to stick. Some oil avoids this, but in other places it just attracts dirt and does nothing for you.

Paint the canopy a nice two color contrast scheme, and the (inside of the) transparent part black. You'd be amazed how hard the default color is to see at a distance, and with a heli this small you need all the help you can get to see which way it's pointing.

I found that on my FP heli, putting the blades a few degrees in front of perfectly straight by eye, and tightening them as hard as possible, made for a stable hover. A CP heli should have the blades loose enough to align themselves, but an FP heli never gets a high enough headspeed for this to happen.

Even if your blades are new, check their balance both statically (do they weigh the same?) and dynamically (is the CoG in the same place on both blades?) and fix it if they don't match. This applies to FP helis as well. You'll be amazed how much vibration and instability even a slight imbalance will cause.

Originally Posted by kryptoniteRxn

The purpose of loosely tightening the blades is to allow them to center and balance themselves by the centripetal force....if you over-tighten them, how can they center themselves?

I tried that, here's y not to do it:
_if you tighten them as to NOT allow any movement, and the orientation of the blades happens to be not balanced, then at high speed, your heli WILL have "death wobbles".....and the chance of tightening them at the correct balanced position is 1/infinity (there's ONLY ONE correct position!!!)

The best to attempt though is:

snuggle tighten them, then go mid thro, then slowly (yes VERY SLOWLY) bring thro to zero, this way your blades are automatically balanced by the rotational/centripetal force...then carefully tighten them...i find this hard bc when you tighten the nuts, the blades tend to move.

thats what i meant!!!

I take a heat gun and warm the adhesive and the part just a little when
using double sided sticky tape . Works good for me