Leveling table for setting up heli

[Temptation]

Hi guys, I wanted a level place to setup my 450x. So this is what I did.

[InFocus]

pretty cool.. But I don't see any advantage to having an absolute level surface, other than keeping loose parts from rolling off your work surface. Blade pitch settings can be determined relative to the main shaft.

[Raysun]

Best is kitchen countertop (when wife is out). Level does help.

[spykez]

Originally Posted by InFocus

pretty cool.. But I don't see any advantage to having an absolute level surface, other than keeping loose parts from rolling off your work surface. Blade pitch settings can be determined relative to the main shaft.

^This.

Skids can be bouncy/off true alignment to the main shaft.

For levelling swash just get a 5mm tripod tool. Or honestly with the bx, the official Blade tool levels 'even' enough - not as good as a tripod, but honestly, you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference. The advantage of the blade tool is you get your swash at the right approximate intended height given the design (about 15mm).

For zero pitch, best thing is tool drop; get two long drivers that just about fit the main blade bolt holes, drop them thru' and align them to the main shaft. Or use the blade fold.

For calibrating the FBL pitch ; zero the digital pitch gauge you have (ie rc logger etc what have you) relative to your now 'zero'ed main grips and then do whatever the setup requires.

[InFocus]

Originally Posted by spykez

^This.
...
Skids can be bouncy/off true alignment to the main shaft.

....

And my learning continues..

It is my understanding that it was best to have zero pitch/level swash relative to the main shaft and not necessarily the angle that the heli is at.
So even if the skids flex, or the frame is not exactly level it wouldn't matter..

What your indicating is that the orientation of the main shaft doesn't matter, but instead to zero pitch/level swash relative to the heli itself.

I recognize that in most cases this is a very subtle difference, but wondering which is 'better'..

[Ed Olson]

I just like the ingenuity at play here. Cheers Temptation!

[spykez]

Originally Posted by InFocus

And my learning continues..

It is my understanding that it was best to have zero pitch/level swash relative to the main shaft and not necessarily the angle that the heli is at.
So even if the skids flex, or the frame is not exactly level it wouldn't matter..

What your indicating is that the orientation of the main shaft doesn't matter, but instead to zero pitch/level swash relative to the heli itself.

I recognize that in most cases this is a very subtle difference, but wondering which is 'better'..

Exactly.

I hope I did not get misunderstood, I am agreeing with you.

In my experience - mainshaft - in my situation (msh) my skids are spongy (gorilla gear) and by design (I dunno why) the main shaft of the protos tilts slightly forward as a sum of the frame design and skids.

In fact with gorilla gear skids, you actually have to support the frame (or remove the skids) as the skids are too wobbly and induce error when using a digital pitch gauge.

I tried once just to level relative to the plane described by the tailboom and made a right balls of it. Heli wouldn't fly right and would tend to go backwards. The reason is that while the swash was level with some plane that made some sense to the eye, it wasn't level with the perpendicular to the main shaft. That gave it a relative aft cyclic.

On the blade you won't notice this as the skids are more rigid and the shaft is practically perpendicular to the frame/boom, by design - so you can use the blade levelleng tool with reference to the blade top frame plateau. Tripod is arguably truer, of course.

[ahahn]

Originally Posted by InFocus

And my learning continues..

It is my understanding that it was best to have zero pitch/level swash relative to the main shaft and not necessarily the angle that the heli is at.
So even if the skids flex, or the frame is not exactly level it wouldn't matter..

What your indicating is that the orientation of the main shaft doesn't matter, but instead to zero pitch/level swash relative to the heli itself.

I recognize that in most cases this is a very subtle difference, but wondering which is 'better'..

Well you were correct in first place. It is the shaft---which the mains are rotating about, that determines where everything should be measured against, including the AR7200BX.

There is nothing special about the relationship of the frame, except where it is holding the main shaft.

[Temptation]

The reason for the table is to have a controlled surface I know to always be level. If I move the heli around to make an adjustment I always know the surface is level anywhere on the table. With the digital pitch gauge I could see my pitch change from 00.1 to 00.4 when moving the heli. It was to have a controlled starting point. I still level with swash with the swash leveling tool. But if I move the heli my pitch gauge doesn’t change now. It might be over kill but now my anally retentive side can rest now…lol

The term anal-retentive (also anally retentive), commonly abbreviated to anal,[1] is used conversationally to describe a person who pays such attention to detail that the obsession becomes an annoyance to others, potentially to the detriment of the anal-retentive person. The term derives from Freudian psychoanalysis.

[cyclo]

In my case I set zero pitch with the pitch gauge resting on top of the AR7200BX controller.

[EEngineer]

"For levelling swash just get a 5mm tripod tool. Or honestly with the bx, the official Blade tool levels 'even' enough - not as good as a tripod, but honestly, you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference. The advantage of the blade tool is you get your swash at the right approximate intended height given the design (about 15mm)."

An alternate method of achieving the proper swash height, without the Blade leveler, is to
ensure that the follower arms are exactly parallel with each other when at mid-collective stick.....and level the swash with the tripod leveler.

And with the tripod leveler, one can ensure that the swash is level at mid-stick.....as well as at full positive and negative collective.

While some claim this isn't necessary(the AR7200BX doesn't have this in the Setup menu),
the Mikado Mini-V setup procedure includes leveling the swash at full +/- collective in it's GUI'd setup procedure. And that's why I checked for a level swash at full +/- collective, also.

FWIW

[spykez]

Originally Posted by EEngineer

...
While some claim this isn't necessary(the AR7200BX doesn't have this in the Setup menu),
the Mikado Mini-V setup procedure includes leveling the swash at full +/- collective in it's GUI'd setup procedure. And that's why I checked for a level swash at full +/- collective, also.

FWIW

Before I got the 6mm tripod for my mini's I had to resort to eyeball. Could get 0 pitch midstick fairly flat but naturally the upper and lower bounds were trickier. I found out I was quite a bit off.

Naturally I have since corrected it but has it made me fly any better? lol...

[EEngineer]

But, dang it, your swash is "dead" level........

[jakozzz]

The zip tie trick to level the swash plate and folding the blades gives you enough for zero pitch and tracking... and a good eye... Just hit TH and mid stick on pitch and your on your way....With FBL systems this is all you need as long as your end points are already set......

[spykez]

Originally Posted by jakozzz

The tie trick to level the swash plate and folding the blades gives you enough for zero pitch and tracking... and a good eye... Just hit TH and mid stick on pitch and your on your way....With FBL systems this is all you need as long as your end points are already set......

Remember you have to turn your gyro off first. That will depend on the gyro. This heli isn't an mCP X where the gyro shuts off on TH.