Building your helicopter

Once you have read this article, read the tutorial on Helicopter Setup then the tutorial on Radio Setup.

Most brand new helicopters come as a kit in a big box and it's up to you to build it up. In some cases, you can buy helicopters in 'Almost Ready to Fly' (ARF) form. Where most of the assembly has been done for you.

Building your helicopter from a kit has a number of advantages, firstly, you get a sense of pride by building up your machine from a box of bits into a proud, majestic aircraft in the finish. Secondly, when you have to make repairs later on, you'll have a good idea of what you need to do to repair it.

Helicopters undergo an amazing amount of force on their little structures. They can be flown in a manner that would see a real helicopter self destruct with the force imparted on it.

Therefore, you want to make sure that you spend a lot of time ensuring that you assemble your pride and joy correctly. Follow your machine's assembly instructions to the letter and when in doubt, get it checked out.

Use Loctite to secure nuts, bolts and screws where applicable, the last thing you want is for one of the crucial fasteners (and on a heli, there's not too many non-critical ones!) to come loose and crash your machine. I've witnessed a large (read expensive) helicopter go down due to one of the critical bolts coming out at the wrong time (there never is a right time).