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A BE G I N N E R ' S G U I D E T O R C HELICOPTERS
These days we can easily fulfil our fascination with flight. Radiocontrolled (RC) helicopters are fairly inexpensive (at least the small, basic ones are) and are easy to operate once you learn the basics and put in some actual flight time. This brief introduction is meant for absolute beginners and aims to introduce some basic but important concepts you need to understand even before you buy your beginner RC helicopter.

What Are RC Helicopters?

RC (short-hand for "radio controlled") helicopters are scale models of real helicopters, aerodynamically sound and designed to fly. RC helicopters are smaller than actual helicopters, and so obviously can't carry live persons. Flight control is accomplished using a remote control device.

Another characteristic of RC helicopters is the presence of a flybar, a short horizontal bar located near the main rotor blades that acts as a flight stabilizer. Many new high-end RC helicopters feature sophisticated electronic stabilization systems that do away with the flybar, making them exact replicas of their full size counterparts.

How Do RC Helicopters Fly?

The details of heavier-than-air flight would take years to understand. But just so you know, a helicopter's main source of thrust and lift is its rotor blades. As the blades spin, it pulls the aircraft off the ground and up in the air. It's pretty much the same for beginner remote control helicopters.

Another component in the helicopter's rotor blade assembly is the swashplate. This consists of two disks, the top one rotating along

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http://www.minihelicopter.com.au/ with the main blades, while the bottom stays stationary. The pilot controls the swashplate so that it changes the angle-of-attack of each of the main rotor blades. This is what provides lift, pulling the helicopter off the ground and into the air.

It's important to note that the spinning rotors cause what's called a "torque reaction" - the body spins in the opposite direction of the rotor blades. To counter this, the tail rotor blades control the spin of the helicopter body and stabilize the aircraft in flight.

How Do RC Helicopters Move Around?

To get the helicopter to lift off the ground, the swashplate moves the angle of the rotors so that they generate the necessary lift.

To move forward or backward, the swashplates tilt the rotors toward a certain direction, causing an imbalance in the lift, and forcing the aircraft to move toward the direction where the lift is less.

Types Of RC Helicopters

There are two basic types of RC helicopters: fixed pitch and collective pitch.

The angles of the rotors of fixed pitch helicopters are set and cannot be changed. The amount of lift is determined by how fast the main rotors spin. The tail blade on fixed pitch helicopters also has a fixed angle. A built-in gyroscope senses changes in the angle of the helicopter's nose and compensates by increasing or decreasing the speed of the tail rotor motor.

Collective pitch helicopters allow the pilot to change the angle of each of the rotors to create lift for the aircraft.

Components Of A RC Helicopter

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http://www.minihelicopter.com.au/ Motor - This spins the gears, which spin the main rotors.

Electric Speed Controller (ESC) - The ESC distributes power to all electronic components.

Servo - The servo moves the mechanical parts of the helicopter.

Gyro - Mounted either front or back of the helicopter, the gyro senses the yaw (sideward rotation) of the helicopter and controls the tail rotor servo to compensate for the torque reaction.

Batteries - This is the RC helicopter's fuel source, its source of power.

Radio - This device allows the pilot to control the helicopter's flight by transmitting command signals to the helicopter.

Receiver - The receiver receives the pilot's command signals from the radio then moves the corresponding servos.

Basic 4-Channel Control

Each "channel" of the RC Helicopter's radio component refers to a specific function of the RC Helicopter. A 4-channel basic controller indicates that there are four functions of the RC Helicopter that you control.

The channel assignments are typically:

Channel 1: Aelirons control the left-right motion of the RC helicopter Channel 2: The Elevator controls forward and backward motion Channel 3: Speed Channel 4: Rudder - controls yaw or spin

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By mixing the effects of these controls, you can get your beginner RC helicopter to simulate a real flight.

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