Radio System FAQ

The first place to look is always to your helicopter's instructions. Many manufacturers will tell you the basic requirements of the bird, or call out any locations where special equipment is required. The next thing to check is your auxiliary equipments' requirements - gyros, governors, etc. BE SURE to follow the requirements of the equipment which will be operating the servo if the servo is not to be directly operated from your receiver.

The next critical issue is reliability (and therefore safety). Standard, economy servos will operate a heli, but are more prone to failure due to the environment in which they work (frequent movement of all the servos, crashes, etc). Also, due to the proximity in which many helis are operated (hovering only a few feet away from the pilot or a crowd), and due to the danger of spinning rotor blades, safety is paramount. For this reason (safety), we recommend that at least "mid-grade" ball-bearing servos be used on all controls - they stand up to abuse better and longer than economy servos. Of course, even mid-grade servos are not as reliable as top-of-the-line servos, but these may be cost prohibitive for you. Mid-grade servos are okay, until you begin to push into 3D and other highly stressful maneuvers.

Beyond the minimums, however, if you want to increase the performance and precision of your helicopter, one of the first places to look is servos. Here are some basic recommendations for servo selection for helicopters:

The current medium grade, ball-bearing servos are enough for any function on a 30-size heli; however, a stronger, faster tail rotor servo would be the first upgrade to look at.

A strong and fast tail rotor servo really helps no matter what heli you're flying. Look for transit times under .18 seconds/60 degrees. If this is your first heli, don't be fooled into thinking that you NEED an extremely expensive ultrafast servo. It will probably be quite a while before you start to push the heli hard enough to notice the difference between a top-of-the line servo and a .18 transit medium-priced servo.

For cyclic and collective control in a 30-class machine, a ball bearing servo will provide you better centering. There's little need for faster or stronger servos on this class of helicopter. As you stretch toward larger and 3D capable machines, speed, strength and precision will become important.

For throttle control, you need very little torque, and a ball bearing servo will be helpful, again, for proper centering. There is little need for a fast throttle servo, as it is likely your engine cannot keep up with the sudden changes in barrel position.

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