johncblacker
Member
After struggling with various types of flybar locks - including the one from Ron Lund - I devised my own which works very well and is quite easy to make. Here are the basic instructions:
1.) Make a platform out of 3/8" plywood large enough to place your heli on plus about 4-4.5" ;
2.) Center your heli on the platform and using 1/8" or 3/16" square balsa put a strip on the outside of each skid
so that the skid cannot spread apart;
3.) Measure out from the center of the head to about 1/4" beyond the flybar cage - this is where your "flybar lock is going to meet the flybar;
4.) Mark the board from the center out towards the edge the distance you measured in step 3;
5.) Get two wood screws long enough to go through the board and extend up about 1/2" to 3/4" and drill two holes in the board at the locations marked in step 4;
6.) Install the two screws from the bottom up so that they protrude above the board on the heli side;
7.) Get two 1/2" dowels or square spruce and cut to the length of the distance from the flybar to approximately the middle of the two wood screws;
8.) Drill holes in the center of the dowels (or square spruce) large enough so that they can be screws onto the wood screws without splitting the wood - they should be able to be screwed on/off easily, but yet be tight enough to stand upright;
9.) At each corner of the board, drill holes for blind nuts and thumb screws, installing the thumb screws from the bottom so that the head ( I use screws with large plastic heads) can rest on your bench/work table;
10.) That's ends construction.
To use:
11.) Place the heli on the stand and level the stand. I use a digital pitch gauge on the frame around the swash;
12.) Using a "line level" level the flybar by moving the two dowels up/down until the flybar is level;
13.) Now you can use your pitch gauge to measure your pitch settings.
If you have both a 450 and a 500 size heli, you can make two sets of dowels - one for each heli and switch them depending on which heli you're setting up.
This apparatus make seem "hokey" but, hey, it works!
1.) Make a platform out of 3/8" plywood large enough to place your heli on plus about 4-4.5" ;
2.) Center your heli on the platform and using 1/8" or 3/16" square balsa put a strip on the outside of each skid
so that the skid cannot spread apart;
3.) Measure out from the center of the head to about 1/4" beyond the flybar cage - this is where your "flybar lock is going to meet the flybar;
4.) Mark the board from the center out towards the edge the distance you measured in step 3;
5.) Get two wood screws long enough to go through the board and extend up about 1/2" to 3/4" and drill two holes in the board at the locations marked in step 4;
6.) Install the two screws from the bottom up so that they protrude above the board on the heli side;
7.) Get two 1/2" dowels or square spruce and cut to the length of the distance from the flybar to approximately the middle of the two wood screws;
8.) Drill holes in the center of the dowels (or square spruce) large enough so that they can be screws onto the wood screws without splitting the wood - they should be able to be screwed on/off easily, but yet be tight enough to stand upright;
9.) At each corner of the board, drill holes for blind nuts and thumb screws, installing the thumb screws from the bottom so that the head ( I use screws with large plastic heads) can rest on your bench/work table;
10.) That's ends construction.
To use:
11.) Place the heli on the stand and level the stand. I use a digital pitch gauge on the frame around the swash;
12.) Using a "line level" level the flybar by moving the two dowels up/down until the flybar is level;
13.) Now you can use your pitch gauge to measure your pitch settings.
If you have both a 450 and a 500 size heli, you can make two sets of dowels - one for each heli and switch them depending on which heli you're setting up.
This apparatus make seem "hokey" but, hey, it works!