Swashplate Timing

First a bit of perhaps "state the obvious"..

You may (or may not) have noticed that the geometry of everything above the swashplate seems to happen 90 degrees out of phase to the expected control input.

Flybar Ratios

If you are running a flybarless system then you might as well stop reading now.

The majority of RC helicopters on sale run a Bell/Hiller system to control the main rotor head. What this means is that the swashplate connects directly to the main blades (Bell) AND directly to the flybar system (Hiller). Not only that but the swashplate to main blade connection goes via a mixer system on the flybar which allows the flybar to have an influence on blade pitch (hence Bell/Hiller).

Paddles ...what they are.. why we have them.. and how flybar weights and flybar lengths come in to play.

Rotorblades

Rotorblades can come in a bewildering range of sections, chords, thickness, weights, sizes, materials, construction and varying C of G's. Some even came with adjustable bolt hole positions.
But what does this all mean and why the variances?