Trimming your helicopter

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

Now that your machine has had it's rotor blades tracked, you're pretty much ready to trim it out. Trimming means adjusting the control surfaces (cyclic and rudder controls etc) until the helicopter hovers fairly steadily without wanting to move off in a particular direction.

You trim your helicopter with the trim adjustment mechanisms on your radio. To trim your machine you must slowly bring it up into a hover and see what the helicopter wants to do. If it wants to move forward all by itself, give the fore/aft cyclic a couple of clicks of aft cyclic to stop it. Likewise with left/right cyclic.

In regards to the rudder, consult with your gyro's documentation first. Some heading hold gyros need to have their centering point reset if rudder trim adjustments are made.

Ideally, you want the helicopter to be able to hover 'hands off' for a couple of seconds without it wanting to wander off on it's own. However, given that you may not be at this stage of flying yet where you feel comfortable to let go of the controls, just trim it until it feels good for you, or better still, have an experienced flyer do it for you.

There you go, pretty simple eh?