iam new and i have a walkera 36

[dubz]

hi everyone
iam new to rc helicopter although i have flown slope soarers
i decided to get a ep heli off ebay and maneged to get a walkera 36. i got an extra set of blades just in case .
so it all arrived today and i charged it all up. i checked it all out (everything is standard - no upgrades, yet) and it all looks fine from what i can see.
it was calm today so i decided to give it go.
a very nervous me powered it up slowly and it got to full rpms with no lift!!
i curiously adjusted the 2 nobs and got a bit of lift from the left one. soo i powered it down and turned the nob half way which gave me the impresion that it was trying to lift but still no cigar !!
i powered down and gave the nob a full turn , powered up but theyre was a real loss of rpm but it looked more promising so i had an idea
i powered down once again , turn the nob to it original setting and powered up. it was really goin so i turned the nob slowly and it lifted WOW
although it was only for a few seconds it was great. i had little to no control it lifted.
my question is -
can anyone help me set up this little heli?
it would be awesome if i could get flying or just evan hovering would be super
sorry it took so long to explain
Many thanks
Ashley

[Daz(DJLFlapper)]

Hello Ashley,


Well it sounds as if the motor didn't have enough power to lift the heli but there are a few things that you can check to find out if the heli was ready to fly in the first place.
The first thing that I need to explain to you is that the knobs that you were turning sound like the hover pitch and Hover throttle, turning one increases the pitch and turning the other adds more rpm. You can find the pitch works if you disconnect the motor and turn the heli on then with your transmitter stick to half way turn the Hover pitch knob, You should see the angle of the main blades change.

Now to the checks that you should do before your first flight.
You need to make sure first that your blades are ballanced. To do this you need to find the C of G (Center of Gravity) of both blades first, You can acheive this with a ruler and a pencil/felt or pen. you need the ruler to be on its edge then rest the blade at ninty degrees to the ruler and find the point at which it ballances. When this is acheived put a mark on the blade where the ruler is. This is the static balance but it is probably different on each blade. what you need to do when both blades have got there balance points marked is bolt them together and look at the marks on the blades. If they are more than 1mm apart you have to balance the blade with the outer most mark to come into the same point as the other blade. You do this by adding Ballanceing tape to the inside/Root part of the blade until the 2 blades balance in the same place.
I find it best to put a little more tape on then cut the excess away till they balance. OK that done you now have to Dynamically ballance them. To do this you can again put the bolt through the blades and do it up so the blades can ballance on a peice of cotton. So now you hang the blades on the cotton with them both pointing away from the other. Try and make sure the cotton is as central to the bolt as possible.
What you want to look for now is if one blade is heavier than the other. Normally the blade that you put the tape on to ballance them statically is the heavier but only slightly.
You now need to ballance them so they hang level with each other. To do this you now have to apply ballance tape on the C of G mark that you made on the blade that is highest. This should then bring the blade down and they should ballance equally. Again it is better to use a little to much and trimm the tape away to find the right amount.

Ok that done you now have blades that are ready for flight. Just a point to note here, There is another Balance that is called the chordwise ballance. This is done to ballance the blades down the center of its length Root to TIP. It is not really needed unless you are heavily into competition flying. This ballance ensures both blades react axactly the same for and aft and is not noticable to most pilots. Therefore we dont need to bother with this.

I know that it seems a lot to take in but it is important to learn to set your heli up properly to get the best from it.

SO BLADES CHECK,
Now you need to fit your blades and sort out your rotorhead. the very first thing to do is make sure that with your radio turned on and your motor unpluged, The swashplate is centered and level It is vitally important to have a level swashplate as the settings for your flybar and rotors rely on this.
Once it is level you are now ready to move to the flybar paddles.
Your flybar paddles must be level with the swashplate. NO PITCH at all just level. You will have to find a way of locking the flybar level and then you can concentrate on getting the paddles level.
TIP a good way of seeing if your flybar is level is to turn the rotorhead by hand and watch for any pitch change in the paddles. If there is hardly any change then its good to go.

Now we get to the business end of the main rotorhead, The blades.
For the blades you will want to set your throttle lever to just above center stick,(NOT with motor plugged in)
Now we need to have 5 1/2 degrees pitch at this point, If you don't have a pitch gage you will need one as it is very important to get this part correct.
As a learner, Your pitch would be better for you at Bottom throttle stick 0 degrees, Mid/Center throttle stick 5 degrees, full throttle +10 degrees
Low 0 degrees Mid +5 degrees High +10 degrees

With Computer Radios
with a computer radio it is quite simple to get your pitch setting set up. You simply need to go into your PITCH CURVES and with the pitch gage on one of the blades and the throttle lever at center stick or just above, Adjust your pitch curve Up or Down till you get +5.5 degrees. Be sure that on your computer radio your PITCH CURVE is pointing at the right tab, then take the throttle stick down to idle/low and adjust the pitch till it says 0 degrees. Now you just go to full throttle and then adjust your pitch to +10 degrees.
Setting your pitch is simply a case of putting the throttle lever where it needs to be Then making your adjustment tab move to the same point on your display, then setting the pitch gage to the required setting say 5.5 degrees. Now when you put the pitch gage on the main blade put it half way along the blade.
What you are now looking for is the top edge of the pitch gage itself lineing up with the flybar which is still level. If you can find a way of holding the flybar level whilst you are doing the pitch settings on your blades it will greatly help to make it easier. Dont be alarmed to find that the pitch gage is not lined up with the flybar it will move when you start adjusting your Pitch curve on your radio as long as you remember to move the tab/arrow over the point you want to adjust in the pitch curve window.

If you don't have a computer radio,
If you dont have a computer radio then it is a little harder to get the settings you want and the pitch settup. But it can be done.
Again the pitch gage is your best freind and it is pointless trying to guess.
What we need to do now is find out what our pitch curves are. So we take a reading at bottom stick(Motor unplugged of course) place the pitch gage onto the blade and make a note of the pitch at idle. Do the same for center stick, and then for full throttle,

We should hopefully have a readin of EST-4 +2 +10 ( of course this is just a guestimate. Hopefully those of you that don't have a computer radio will have things like crystal pots that allow you to adjust the pitch curve Hi and Low, In this case what I used to do is set my throttle lever to just above the center and look to see what pitch I had.
Lets say it was +2 as we've allready stated. I would now machinicaly change the pitch setting by adjusting my linkage rods to the blade grips so that each blade now says +5.5 degrees.
Now I would see how this affected my top and bottom stick pitch they would have both been affected by the chaging of the linkage rod length. so I could expect to see somthing like,
-1 +5.5 +13 SO now I would use the adjustment pots to bring the pitch to what I wanted. I would go to low stick (throttle) which is now -1 degree and I would adjust the Pitch curve low crystal to bring the pitch to 0 degrees. This done now bring the throttle lever to full and I would have +13, I would now adjust the Pitch curve HI pot to bring the Pitch down to +10 degrees. This acheived I would now have the pitch I wanted of (0 degrees Low, +5.5 degrees Mid, +10 degrees full)

Thats it for the head settup, ALMOST!!

Now you must place a mark on one blade near the tip at the leading adge, this is going to be used to track the blades in. You can now connect the motor. When you are happy and ready to power your heli you must get down level with the rotor disk. As the blades start to spin look at the face of the blades at the tip. You will now see the blades tracking and as you approach the half throttle mark you need to look for the mark on the leading adge of the blade.
If both blades are tracking in the same plane then all you should see is one disk line from the blades as they spin. If however they split you will be able to see one above the other, Now you can identify if the marked blade is on top or at the bottom of the two. lets say it is at the bottom. you now need to stop the motor turning the blades and remember which blade was where. Our blade need to come up to the other blade, You need to work out which linkage rod you need to adjust to increase pitch slightly. Only take one turn then go and look again. If the gap closes then you decide if it needs one more adjustment. If the gap open you went the wrong way and when you do your first turn you can take 2 turns the other way. when you are happy your blades are in track properly, or as close as possible. Thats it,,,,

Congrats you are now ready for your first lift.

[dubz]

thanks very much for the detailed reply
it got me off the ground easier with a little bit of tweeking from you tips
ive realised the the battery is not soo good. i was using the wall charger that it came with and it was just cooking the battery. i should have used my ripmax pro peak charger first. i put the meter to the 12v 650mah 10cell battery and the reading it gave was 496mah
after a day of re-cycling ive got to 652mah. the heli feels sooo much more alive but it is strugerling to take off. the method iam using to get airborn is to get up to full rpm and then adjust the pitch trim nob. ok i know this is TOTTALY WRONG but i get off the ground. so now its off the ground i have now aquired another problem. i feel really stupid asking for help but it is getting me there. ok the heli takes off with my really daft method and the the heli turns anti-clock wise even with full left stick input with trim fully left adjusted. i just cant figure it out. looking at the pitch of the rear rotor i would have thought it would have turned to the left at great rate but not so.
well for the battery situation i thing iam goin to save my money and invest it into a brushless system. from what ive read and seen it looks like you get a lot longer flight time (for those who can fly - not me yet) and lots of power.
on bad side i can see is that you have to use a specific charger. could you tell me if i could use it with the existing reciever because it has a built in ESC?
i have just 1 more question to bore you with - sorry
ok i understand and can see that the tail rotor runs from a toothed belt that runs down the tail boom - i can understand that bit. the question i have is how does this get tensioned?and does anything hold it tensioned such as a screw? i can see that it is clamped in place by the chassis but nothing else?
i really appreciate your feed back, its all helping. i still cant wait till i get to the point where i can hover in front of me. iam getting there. 1 lesson i have learnt straight away is that buying a second-hand heli comes with its problems.
Many thanks for help with my little project
Ashley

[Daz(DJLFlapper)]

Hello Ashley,

I am really confused now, You say that your heli is turning anticlockwise all the time. Then you say even with full left input it still turns!!!!! Looking at your heli and giving left will make the heli turn anticlockwise

I really don't understand. Is your heli spinning right or left and what input are you giving?

Normally a heli will turn left on getting light on its skids. to cancel this out you need to give it right input. IF the nose of the heli stops turning then you simply need to set the tail rotor pitch so this stops. You can do this By adding some revo mix or machanically adjusting the tail if useing a heading hold gyro.

If when you give right input the nose speeds up then your gyro is the fault and it needs to be reversed.

Please let me know what is going on and I will answer your problem.

The built in esc and receiver needs to be adapted to work with a li/po battery and brushless motor, You would be better getting a different heli than doing this as you will just be wasting your money.

As for the Belt tension, Belts are normally tensioned by moveing the boom out slightly from the main frame as I do with mine, OR by moveing the tail rotor gear box back and clamping it in its new position according to the belt tension.

[dubz]

sorry about making things soo complicated
ok when the heli starts to get light on its skids the rear of the heli wants to turn to the right. even with full left input it still wants to go right but not as much. and the pitch is at it full extent
hope this is a bit more clearer
thanks for your help
Ashley

[Daz(DJLFlapper)]

Ashley,

If the tail of the heli is moveing to the right then your input to stop this happening should be to the right...

You are making a very common error here, you should always watch the nose of the heli not the tail. If your looking at the nose of your heli it should be turning left,,,,, If it is then you must give a right input to halt its turn. This should work,
However by doing the wrong thing and watching the tail when you see the tail go right you think that by giveing a left you will stop it. NOT SO you are actualy giving the same input to turn the heli left at the nose.
Watch the front of the heli not the tail.

Good luck.

[dubz]

hi Darren
i have found the problem with the tail rotor !!!
i was curious why even with full left input nothing was happening so i decided to strip down the heli rotor and boom. i found the the gear which the pulley wraps round on the main body of the heli was striped ! i reckon but i might be wrong that when i gave it full throttle it was slipping. it has damaged the belt but the gear at the back is fine so i have them parts on order.
soo curiosity didnt kill the cat - it helped him discover the problem.
i feel a bit stupid but i think i wil have a controlled take off with the new parts
ok i will get back to you when i have got it all back together
Many thanks again
Ashley

[Daz(DJLFlapper)]

Your welcome fella,

Happy to be of service to you anyway, Even if this advice didn't do much to help you out I am sure that it will help others that read this far down.

Good luck with the replacment parts, The advice still applies though. Stop watching the tail and concentrate on the nose for your left and rights.

Hope your up and hovering soon.