Model Forum / Radio Controlled / Helicopters / August 2003

Has this heli ever flown, or is it a new setup? If new, you may have the tail rotor reversed.

With all the radio gear turned on and the gyro initialized, yaw the boom and see if the tail
rotor blades pitch the correct direction to counter the yaw.

What type of gyro and tail servo configuration are you using?  are the wires
routed away from the magneto?

GD

It seems like the gyro is reversed. One of the easiest ways to set up a
tail/gyro configuration is to do this:-

Turn radio on at tranny and on model.
Stand a tail blade UP. Move the tail rotor control lever (on the tranny) to the
left, and then when the model is viewed from behind, the BACK of the tail blade
should also move to the left. If it doesn't, reverse the servo.
When you have made sure it is working in the correct sense, then watch the
servo arm as you move the tail control lever to the left. The arm will move
either forward or back, remember the direction. Say for example it moves back.

Now hold the rotor head, and sharply twitch the nose of the model to the RIGHT,
while watching the servo arm.  Its FIRST movement should be in the same
direction as the direction already observed (in our example it was backwards).
The servo will quickly try and centre so you are only watching for its first
movement. If the direction of servo arm travel is opposite to what you want,
then you will need to reverse the gyro NOT the servo.
This method works for all helicopters not just gassers. If all checks out then
it could be all sorts of other things (headspeed too low, tail blades wrong way
round, slipping drive shaft, etc)

It is very doubtful this is a radio glitch. If it was, the heli would be all
right some of the time, and not others. Also you would see it in movement of
the other servos as well.