Suggested settings for 4 blade scale heli?

[SDedic214]

I am building a 500-size AH-64 Apache with a 4-blade rotor head (the Align one) and a 4 blade tail rotor. I am using a lower Kv Scorpion motor to give me the lower headspeed I need with 4 blades. I had my first successful maiden flight last Saturday. And yes, I was very nervous....

This is my first build using 4 blades all the way around so I understand that the lift characteristics are different than the 2-blade sport systems I've used in the past.

Here's what I have as my Tx settings so far:

Throttle Curve: Normal is linear (0-25-50-75-100), Idle Up 1 is 75% flat and Idle Up 2 is 85% flat. I haven't tached the headspeed yet so the Idle Up curves are placeholders until I do.

Pitch Curve: All are set to 25 - 37-50-75-100. Currently the heli starts to lift off at about 60% collective.

EXPO and Dual Rates: All are set to default so it's basically a Sport Heli setup.

The heli was sensitive upon liftoff but not unmanageable. Or maybe that was my nervousness....

Can you suggest some Tx settings that would be a start towards making this fly in a more scale-like manner?

Regarding the Collective I am set at 0 degrees at mid-stick. Should I up that to about 5 degrees at mid-stick?

Thanks!

[Keyrigger]

A couple of suggestions with curves.

Set your normal pitch curve so that you have no negative pitch upon spool-up and then set your mid point so that it gives you 5 degrees of pitch. Your final pitch point will be at 100%. You can use a simple straight line between those three points.

For your Idle 1 (and 2), set your low point to about -4 or -5 degrees pitch for your autorotation setting and then you can either put the second point to intersect the line from your Normal pitch and then mid point will be still at 5 degrees and full at what ever your 100% is.

Your throttle curve in Normal can be something like this. 0 - 65 - 75 - 75 - 75. Your Idle 1 set to 75 and your Idle 2 set to 85. You will transition from Normal to Idle 1 and 2 seamlessly, especially when you use a mild to slow change from one speed to the next. Do not use instant response in the throttle change. Also, you can start to get used to governing your head speed (if your ESC supports it properly) and that will give you a very steady head speed throughout the range o operation.

I no longer use Dual rates for flight and no Expo at all. For some strange reason, I have a 90% Dual Rate on my elevator and aileron on my models but only on Normal, which I never fly on anymore. My governed settings for Normal have a low head speed so that I will not forget to flip to Idle 1 for take-off. That has cost me dearly just recently and I made those changes so it does not happen again, if I can at all help it. Hope this helps.

Don

[SDedic214]

Don, thank you very much for your detailed reply. I'll make sure to incorporate this information into my flight profiles.