Align 3G Tuning

Introduction

If you are anything like me you got hold of the 3G flybarless system, set it up according to the manual, went flying and twiddled with the pots on the front, then came home thinking hmmm I must have done something wrong, this thing flies like a bag of spanners!

Well, despite all the 3G hype and the exclamations of heli heaven having fitted it, the reality is that many fliers like me are having a problem with it....... 'flybar withdrawl' is possibly an apt description.

So, what's the secret, how do you setup a 3G flybarless system to fly like a heli that still has a flybar?

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.