Here are five steps to dynamically balance your R/C helicopter blades.

Five steps to dynamically balance your R/C helicopter blades. Step # ONE - Start by trying to find the Center of Gravity (C.G.) point for each blade. Using the ruler, place blade number one on top of the triangular ruler until the blade comes into balance.... just like balancing a pencil on your finger.

Technical Illustration:                          Step # TWO –Mark out the Center of Gravity (CG) with a marker. In the above step you balanced the blade on top of the triangular ruler. Now that the blade is balanced on top of the ruler, you need to mark the blade where the Center Of Gravity (C.G.) point is located. As shown in the picture below, go ahead and place a small mark on the blade where the ruler meets the blade. Now that we have found and marked the Center Of Gravity (C.G.) point, we now need to find the C.G. point for blade two as well. So go ahead and repeat steps one and two for blade number two. Step # THREE - At this stage, go ahead and compare the two blades to see where each blade’s C.G. points are located. You must line up the holes that are located at the root then secure the blades by inserting a blade grip bolt through the root holes. Securing the bolt through the blades will give you an accurate reading when comparing the C.G. points.   When compared, the two blades may have the C.G. points in different positions. If the two C.G. points are no further than 1 mm apart, then the blades C.G points are okay and you do not need to do any corrections to the blades. You can now proceed to static balance section. But if the blades C.G.’s points are further than 1mm apart, proceed to the next step. This is where you will need to match both blades C.G. points. As you can see from the illustration below, Blade one C.G. point is closest to the root so we will use blade two C.G. point as a guide ( because its farthest from the root) for blade one. Technical Illustration:                          Go ahead and mark blade one with the marker in the same spot where Blade two C.G. point is located. So in other words, transfer the C.G. point mark from blade two to blade one. You will use this as a guide where blade one would need to be balance exactly like Blade two. Go ahead compare your blades and use your marker to place mark on Blade 1 to match Blade 2.

  Remember, we will need to match Blade 1 C.G. point to blade 2 C.G. point. Step # FOUR - If the blades C.G.s are more than 1mm apart, then you have to get the C.G. point of Blade 1 (C.G. that is closest to the root) to match with C.G point on Blade 2 (C.G. that is farthest from the root). So we are trying to push the C.G. point out of Blade 1 to match Blade 2. In step three you marked Blade 1 with its new C.G. point from Blade 2. Now go ahead and place Blade 1 on top of the triangular ruler on the mark you put there from step three. Make sure you line up the C.G. point (same C.G. from Blade2) with the tip of the ruler.

  Naturally, when you place Blade 1 (Blade with the new C.G. point in place) on top of the ruler, Blade 1 is not going to stay balanced. That’s why we have the tracking tape to aid in adding weight to the one side blade in order to get the blade balanced according to the new C.G. point. Do this by applying a little strip of tracking tape or duct tape at the EDGE of Blade 1 to push the C.G. more to the outer edge to match Blade 2. As shown in the picture below. Technical Illustration: Step # FIVE – After applying the tracking tape to the Blade 1, we will need to re-find the C.G. again by repeating steps 1 and 2, and compare with Blade two. You have to make sure that the C.G. point is in the same location as Blade 1. If you notice the C.G point from Blade 1 is way off (not the same as Blade 2) go ahead and remove or add some tracking tape. After adjusting the tracking tape make sure to re-find the C.G point for both blades. Make sure they are in the exact same spot. You might have to play with it a little in order to get the exact same C.G. point as Blade 2.

Technical Illustration: Once you got both the blade’s CGs in the same location, the Blades are now Dynamically Balance. What this means is that when both blades spin, the C.G. points will be spinning together at the same spot.