[hifly2104]

Ok I had my 550 Heli up today for the first time and it drifts a little. Now do I correct this with The trim switches as you would an airplane or try and chase it with the sticks. One other thing I have noticed is it is a little tail heavy when I hold it with the main rotor knobby. This could reate my drift problem too am I correct. Thanks in advance.
Oh by the way it was totally awesome!!

[MarkToo]

If you're confident your initial mechanical set up is good, go ahead and trim out the minor drift in flight - there's nothing wrong with that.

[davidz58]

Should be either tail neutral not set properly, or try to increase gain a bit.

[hifly2104]

Originally Posted by davidz58

Should be either tail neutral not set properly, or try to increase gain a bit.

Guess I should have said its drfting backwards and to the left . Not in a rotational direction. Gyro seems to be holding it very steady in that respect

[u8mydog]

Originally Posted by hifly2104

Guess I should have said its drfting backwards and to the left . Not in a rotational direction. Gyro seems to be holding it very steady in that respect

The left drift is possibly due to the sideways thrust from the tail and can be trim'd out. But the drift backwards.....if the heli is tail heavy when you check the balance, then you shouldn't use trim to correct it unless you aren't planning on doing any inverted.

[bwoollia]

You should ideally set up your helicopter so that it flies without trim. The C/G should be spot on if you can get it there. If you're trimming the helicopter out in the hover, it will be out of trim in any other attitude (for example, in a stall turn when you are pitched up 90 degrees, the trim act as an input)

[Flypaper]

First flights should be trimmed out mechanically with the pushrod adj. Then fine tune with the trans. trimmers. If it's drifting backwards, make sure the CG is right.

[x-planker]

Flypaper hit this one bang on....

[gi1mo2]

I would use the sub-trim on the transmitter (I have a DX7) because you can adjust it once for all modes.

I had a problem where the mechanical trim (switched on the transmitter) are different for each mode (normal, idle up 1 and 2, hold). I couldn't figure out why the trim would change when I put throttle hold on and took it off. Mechanical trim was different in each mode.

[MarkToo]

Originally Posted by gi1mo2

I would use the sub-trim on the transmitter (I have a DX7) because you can adjust it once for all modes.

Use your sub trims to ensure your servo arms are exactly 90deg. on initial set up only.

Adjust your linkages to get the swash level.

Flight trim is the only trim you should use to compensate for different wind conditions etc. If your initial set up is good, the heli should hover pretty much hands off in ideal circumstances. Keep in mind, this may not be truly achievable depending on quality of parts and to a lesser degree, the size of the helicopter.