Fly-Sky Configuration
and Helicopter Setup Manual

SAFETY

Every manual that is associated with a mechanism capable or producing injury and property damage should provide a safety guide section. An RC Helicopter is not a toy. Even the smallest model can cause the loss of an eye or worse. The following guidelines should be strictly followed .

Mechanical Safety

Because the helicopter has many parts moving traveling at extremely high speed, always perform pre-flight checks.

Grab the main blades and verify the blade grips are connected properly. If one of the bolts holding the blade grip to the feathering shaft snaps, strips, or just loosens up, the blades will become lethal projectiles.

Verify all of the connecting links are correctly mounted on the link balls. Verify they do not have sloppy movement, and they are secure. Dropping a link in flight may quickly cascade into an injury, and will certainly cause the model to crash.

Main blade holder bolts are not too tight, and not too loose. They should be snug in the blade grips. You should be able to move the blades without force.

Take a screwdriver or whatever tool is required to check all of the hardware, especially on the head and tail assemblies. This doesn't need to be done every pre-flight, but as a minimum, every ten batteries. Every three batteries on a new helicopter (minimum).

Tail blades should be checked in the same way as the main blades. Verify the grips are tight on the tail hub. Inspect the belt for wear. Tail blades should move within the blade grips with a flick of your finger. A tight tail blade grip will cause vibration, and tail bobbing.

Powering Up / Start-up Safety

The very first time you power up a freshly built helicopter, or even an RTF it is highly advised that you remove the main blades. Place the helicopter into a test stand or weigh down the skids so that the helicopter will not move. Test the direction and operation of the Throttle Cut Off switch. Test the direction of the main blades (should be CW looking down on the helicopter). If the rotor turns the wrong direction, reverse two of the main motor windings. Test the Idle Up switch to verify which direction is Idle Up (high speed).

Always power up the radio first. Never power up the helicopter without the radio being on, and within distance to bind with the receiver. Stray radio signals can and will cause an unbound helicopter to violently come to life at the worst possible moment.

Always set the Throttle-Cut switch to ON (prevent motor power) before connecting power to the helicopter and before approaching the helicopter.

Wait for the transmitter to initialize before plugging in power to the helicopter. Usually five to ten seconds.

Always verify the Receiver, ESC and Gyro has initialized properly before flight. Typically the ESC will sound a series of beeps (most common is a three beep signal). The Gyro usually has an LED (Light Emitting Diode) that will show a steady light indicating it has initialized in Head Holding mode. The receiver will have a steady light. If using a satellite receiver, it typically also has an LED to show that it is bound to the transmitter.

Wait for the gyro to obtain control of the tail servo. This usually occurs within seven seconds after the gyro LED has a steady light. Do not move the helicopter during this initialization phase.

Do not force the situation. If the helicopter does not initialize properly, unplug it, and start over.

Never switch off the radio while the helicopter is plugged in. Turn on the Throttle-Cut switch before approaching the helicopter, remove power from the helicopter, then power off the radio.

Note: the radio should be at least two feet away from the helicopter when attaching the battery and during initialization. Further distance is better.

Flying Safety

Academy of Model Aeronautics – AMA has published safety guidelines for remote controlled flight models at http://www.modelaircraft.org/files/105.pdf

It is in your best interest to review these safety rules even if you do not intend on becoming an AMA member. DO NOT TAKE HELICOPTER SAFETY LIGHTLY!

These are not toys. Numerous innocent bystanders have been badly injured because of careless and non-indoctrinated pilots. (see http://greenmountainrc.org/node/101)

Quick List of Safety Tips: http://www.buyrchelicopters.com/helicopter-safety.htm

Note: Did you know that you are required to have your name and address affixed to any outdoor helicopter? Not having this is reason enough to have your AMA membership revoked!

Avoid flying an outdoor helicopter in tight quarters such as in your living room. Circulating currents are often 10X as wide as the rotor span, so a helicopter with 12” blades (a 24” span) would require a 20x20 foot room just to hover dead-center without it’s own re-circulated downdraft shoving it into the ground. Unless you have access to a large enclosed building, refrain from attempting indoor flight of a 450 (or larger) helicopter.

Avoid flying the helicopter in proximity of other people. Murphy's Law.

Never Ever fly your helicopter around pedestrians, children, livestock, Eagles, Falcons, Geese, pets, your Porsche, your next door neighbor's flower garden, swimming pools, bird baths, shooting ranges, or any location where guns are easily accessible.

Make sure you are flying in an RF friendly environment. Schools, Fire stations, and emergency services buildings are known to use high powered wireless network transmitters that will easily overpower your transmitter's output causing your expensive helicopter to lose control.

Minimize your risk by standing in a location where your helicopter or some other aircraft won't find you an easy target. Be aware of your surroundings. Barns and trees have been known to jump right in front of a perfectly good flying helicopter.

Be RF friendly even in designated RC-friendly environments. Modern 2.4GHz transmitters usually won’t interfere with one another, but Murphy's Law has a whole chapter dedicated to “It Shouldn't Have”. Radio Frequencies of 27MHz, 36MHz, 72MHz (really, anything MHz) transmitters will interfere with one another, and more than one should never be powered on within 1.5 miles of one another. These MHz-band receivers are also extremely prone to receiving interference, so your neighbor’s cordless phone probably can crash your helicopter.

Know the reliable range of your transmitter. Have a buddy watch your helicopter while you walk far, far away from your takeoff point carrying the transmitter and wiggling the servos. When they stop wiggling reliably, walk halfway back and plant a flag or at least note that distance. Now don’t ever fly beyond that flag/landmark. Uncontrolled flying lawnmowers raining down on their children result in uncontrollable neighbors flying over to your house. Periodically RE-check the range of your transmitter – what worked well out to a mile when it was new instantly loses most of it’s range for unknown reasons. Note: Some 27MHz transmitters are only reliable about as far as you can throw the helicopter. To test, simply throw the helicopter as far as you can, then if the transmitter works, throw it again to be sure. Continue as many times as needed until the helicopter stops working, then go buy a 2.4ghz replacement helicopter.

Don't fly too close to the ground, especially when inverted. It is better to fly 15 feet or higher (above your head) so that you have time to recover.

Be aware of your OWN body’s surroundings – if you’re going to rotate to track your helicopter, make sure you’re not stepping into a gopher hole or a gift from your beloved dog that is going to divert your attention while the helicopter doubles back to your forehead.

Know your vision limitations. Really. Don’t be like grandpa who will tell you he can see fine. If you can’t see your helicopter’s orientation clearly at a given distance, you can not safely fly it that far away. Get yellow-tinted glasses, prescription if needed to help with contrast and color on gloomy days.

Verify all of your controls are functioning properly before leaving the ground.

• Tail Slider is not binding.

• Tail control rod is not bending under servo load.

• Gyro is initialized and functioning properly. Tail slider moves in the correct direction when the helicopter is rotated by hand.

• All servos are healthy (never fly a servo that has any stripped teeth).

• Before leaving the ground, increase throttle to get the helicopter light in the skids. Test your right and left yaw control (Helicopter should lean left and right in the skids). Test your forward and reverse control. Test that your tail responds in the correct direction. Stand behind and slightly to the side (not directly behind the helicopter), and lift off. The helicopter may want to slide to the left because of the ground wash effect. Lean it back towards the right a little and continue the ascent. A 450 helicopter will be effected by ground wash by up to three feet above the ground. The ground surface will also effect the amount of ground wash.

• DO NOT fly if the controls are not reacting correctly.

• Hover to five or six feet before attempting to adjust trims. Watch the helicopter orientation. Adjust trims to keep the helicopter in one place with the main shaft straight up and down. Once your tuning experience increases, you should be able to get the helicopter to maintain a hands off hover for two or more seconds.

*Warning – once you get your helicopter that finely tuned, don't get lazy fingers. It is easy to zone out when it flies that easy. That is when disaster can strike, such as a gust of wind comes out of nowhere and you were not ready.

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