I'm not going to get involved in setting up for 3D flight or conventional aerobatics, because I've covered it in the introduction of the section called "Aerobatics". This section is designed to help the relative newcomer who wants to get more out of his machine than just hovering.

If you've followed the previous stage, you'll now have a machine that's more responsive to your collective commands in forward flight. If you've left all other settings exactly the same, you can flick into Idle Up 1 once you've established a stable hover, with the result that as a gust of wind hits the heli and it climbs, you'll have more positive control. I'll often use Idle Up 1 to warm the engine up on the flight line as power can be increased with the collective at bottom whilst the blades spool up to almost flight speed. The negative pitch keeps the heli firmly on the ground.

Word of warning. In the checklists I mentioned the switch position checks on start up. If you try to start the heli in Idle Up 1 it will now start at about 26% throttle…need I say more!

You could make other changes to the pitch and throttle settings to increase head speed for forward flight that will make the heli more responsive, it's down to you and your personal choice.

The other aspect I want to touch on now is the tendency for the heli to crab in forward flight. This can be cured by what's was called on my first transmitter (JR 652) Stunt Trim. As I've said before, check the manual that came with your radio equipment for exact instructions and set up guidance.

Stunt Trim is only activated or available on the 652 when Idle Up 1 is selected. This facility enables additional adjustments to be made to the flight settings to accommodate forward flight. For instance, I can set a Rudder Offset that once adjusted, will automatically trim the tail rotor to compensate for that crabbing tendency I mentioned earlier due to the increased efficiency. I can also compensate for any roll or pitching upwards or downwards in forward flight. Establishing the correct levels of trim is just a matter of fiddling with the settings until the heli is flying exactly the way I want it to. Once done, when I select Idle Up 1 all the preferences I've chosen are available.

As an addendum, with more advanced and modern transmitters like the JR X-3810, JR X-378 etc, trimming for forward flight is much easier. You don't have to go through menu systems to find the likes of Stunt Trim. This is because modern radios have digital trims rather than mechanical. The advantage of digital trims is that you can have one set of trims programmed in Normal Mode, and another in Idle Up 1 and 2. This means you can trim for a perfect hover, switch to Idle Up 1 and once the trims are adjusted for forward flight that's it!
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