Basic radio programming 101

[thehaze]

Spent some time yesterday at the field working with a student on radio setup and figured I'd share some basic info for new pilots on radio setup and some basic settings that will make your flights more enjoyable. With this said, most of these features come on more advanced radios than something like a DX5, but a lot of students are using DX6's and similar, or you can expect that once you get your wings you will be shopping for a better radio as you start looking at more advanced models. So here goes...

• Dual Rates and Expo. You're going to use this a lot. Here's a little article on what they do ( http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=331087 ). Every radio is a bit different, but the principle is the same. When you are setting up a model for the first time, look in the manual and see what the control throws are supposed to be. Most will list a high and a low setting. Use the Dual rate menu to adjust the servo travel to match the specified value. Personal taste dictates how you set things up, but like to set all my control surfaces to respond to one switch (as apposed to have one for each) I also like to use position 0 as my low rate and 1 as my high. If you have a 3 position switch you can also add a medium rate. Be careful with expo, while a little bit will help smooth out a twitchy model, too much will make the controls feel soft and unresponsive. Start with small amounts (10%) and work your way up until the model feels right.
• Differential This is a feature that is used quite infrequently. However, if your model is exhibiting "adverse yaw" when turning, then this might be a feature you want to use. Here's some reading for you on this (http://www.rc-airplane-world.com/aileron-differential.html)
• Mixing Mixing is when you blend together the movement of two channels on your radio. A common example would be adding some rudder during a turn automatically. In this instance, you will be mixing rudder into the aileron input on your radio. The amount of mix can be adjusted from very little 10% or fully proportional 100%.  Your radio will have the ability to turn the mix on and off (usually the switch is labelled mix1 or mix2)
• Sub Trim very confusing topic. Just check the RC groups forum and you'll see that the opinions on this are varied. Here's a good video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhoOW0GiRfY)

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That's it for now.. more to come