Setting up a helicopter for its first flights can be a daunting task, even after you've done it a few times. There is more than one "right" way to do it, and a lot of room for personal preferences, so I don't claim that this page describes the "one true setup" for everyone. What it does describe is the process I use to set up my own helicopters, as well as those of beginners who ask for my assistance. I will walk though the setup, step by step, explaining what I do and why I do it.

First, some general principles...

• 90 degree angles are your friend. With the controls centered, imagine a short line from the center of the servo horn to the ball link. This line should be perpendicular (at 90 degrees to) the linkage attached to that ball. If it isn't, you'll find that you get more control throw in one direction than the other, which will leave you with a helicopter that feels different depending on which way you're turning or tumbling. Helicopters are hard enough to fly already, bad setup only makes them more difficult still.
• Slop is not your friend. Grab the swashplate and wiggle it up and down... try to tilt it in every direction. Notice any slop? Find and fix the sources. Grab the blade grips and twist them. Notice any slop? Find and fix the sources of the slop. With all those linkages and pivots between the blade grip and the servo horn, there's bound to be some slop, but do everything you can to minimize it.
• This document assumes that you have a radio with 5-point curves. If you have fewer (e.g. JR 8-channel radios have 3 point throttle curves and tail rotor curves), just ignore the "1/4 stick" points. If you have more (e.g. JR 10-series and Futaba 9-series), do the best you can to fill in the blanks.
• If you follow all of these instructions to the letter, you'll probably end up with a very flyable helicopter. If you only follow half of the instructions here, and borrow from someone else's setup scheme for the rest, you'll probably end up with a rather uncooperative beast. You're best off sticking with a single setup paragidm until you're confident that you can experiment, recognize the results (both intended and unexpected results!), and compensate for the side effects of the changes.
• That said, a computer radio is like an etch-a-sketch. If you don't like what you end up with, you can start over as many times as you like. Even better than the etch-a-sketch, you can erase only the part you don't like, and you can restore your old setup perfectly if you just take good notes. There's a lot of room for personal preference in helicopter setup. You find your preferences by experimenting, so don't be afraid to experiment. Just start with something that works, and make one change at a time so you can learn from each little change.
• This is an iterative process. Unless you're really lucky, you won't be able to execute each step in sequence without running into a problem that forces you to back up a couple steps, make a change, and work your way forward again. It can be tedious and time-consuming. Set aside an entire evening, and don't be surprised if you need two. This process assumes that you'll be doing 3D, which assumes that you'll need quite a bit of pitch range, which inevitably means that you'll need to fuss with your linkages to find a combination of lengths and angles that gives you full positive and full negative without binding anything.

  You'd think that after all these years of all these people doing all these crazy aerobatics, you'd be able to build any kit according to the instructions and get +/- 10 degrees on the first try. Unfortunately, you'd be wrong. If you're not wrong, you're lucky! I'm sure this will change as manufacturers come to grips (so to speak) with the fact that everyone wants to do 3D these days, but I don't think we're there yet.

• This document assumes that you're past the training-gear stage and into forward flight. If you're still learning to hover with training gear, a some modifications are in order:
  1. Don't bother setting up idle-up-2.
  2. Use a pitch range of 0 to 8 degrees for normal mode and idle-up-1.
  3. Set your 5-point pitch curve for 0, +2, +4, +6, +8 (nice and linear).
  4. Start with a throttle curve of 0, 30, 50, 70, 100 for normal mode
  5. Start with a throttle curve of 25, 30, 50, 70, 100 for idle-up-1
  6. Get into the habit of using normal mode to start the engine and end your flights, and using idle-up-1 for all of your flying.
  7. When the training gear comes off and you start getting into forward flight, switch over to the -4 to +8 collective setups for normal mode and idle-up-1. You'll find it a bit tedious to bring the helicopter back downstairs into a regular hover when you only have 0 degrees of pitch at low stick. It will slow down and descend, but only slowly.
  8. When you get into forward flight, get rid of the training gear. With altitude and distance, they will only serve to confuse your eyes like an Escher drawing.

What to do	Why to do it
Start with a blank slate. Set all of your trims and subtrims to zero, set all of your ATVs to 100%. Set your 'high' dual rates to 100% and your 'low' dual rates to 75%. Set your idle-up-2 pitch curve to 10, 30, 50, 70, 90% from low-stick to high-stick. Set your idle-up-2 throttle curve to 100,60,50,60,100. Set your normal-mode pitch curve to 30,45,60,75,90. Set your normal-mode throttle curve to 0,30,40,60,100% from low-stick to high-stick.	Any asymmetrical settings in your radio are only going to cause headaches later. The pitch curve settings will be explained later, but for now just note that there's ten percent at either end of the idle-up-2 range that goes unused, and the 1/4 points (30 and 70%) are moved in five percent to keep things linear. This will allow throttle hold to have a little bit of extra pitch on top. These curves will need to be refined later, but they provide a pretty reasonable place to start. You'll fine-tune the pitch curve with a pitch gauge, and you'll fine-tune the throttle curve with a tach (if you're lucky) or by ear (which also works). Then you'll fine-tune both of them all over again a couple times. Its almost inevitable.
Center the servo horns. Remember, 90 degree angles are your friend. Get the servo horns as close to straight as you can get them mechanically, then use the subtrim to get each one perfectly centered. Do this for all five channels: throttle, collective, both cyclics, and the rudder.	This should be obvious. If it isn't, just trust me.
Level the swashplate. Adjust linkages as necessary. This will vary from one helicopter to the next, so I can't offer any specific suggestions.	If the swashplate isn't level, this will confuse the pitch gauge in later steps.
Level the chassis.Put a bubble-level on the sideframes, servo tray, tail boom, or whatever you can find. Shim under the skids as necessary to get the heli level. You only need to do one axis (e.g. looking from the side or looking from the front), just remember to make all of your pitch gauge readings while you're looking at the helicopter along that axis.	If the chassis isn't level, all of your pitch gauge readings will be skewed correspondingly. This will leave you with a helicopter that lugs down when you climb upright and overspeeds when you climb inverted, or vice versa.
Zero the collective. Hang a pitch gauge on a blade and a bubble-level on the flybar. If you have a "flybar alignment" pitch gauge like the Miniature Aircraft or Helimax gauges, set it for zero degrees and tinker until the flybar is parallel. Set your radio to idle-up-two, and center the collective stick. This part varies from one helicopter to the next, but there are typically three sets of links to consider. First, look at the links between the collective servo and whatever it works on - a rocking servo in the case of the Futura and XCell, a tilting servo in the case of the Intrepid and Raptor, a simple bellcrank in the case of the Concept, and so on. Shoot for a 90 degree angle between the linkage arm and this mechanism (rocking servo, bellcrank, whatever). Second, look at the links between the collective mechanism and the swashplate. Again, aim for 90 degree angles where possible. Third, look at the links between the swashplate and the mixer, or (in the case of the Concept) between the mixer and the blade grip. It's nice if you can get zero collective without touching your subtrim, but I think the backlash against making electronic adjustments is sometimes taken too far. However, if you run into a mechanical limit (a link that can't get any shorter, servo splines that aren't quite centered, etc) you may need to resort to subtrim.	For 3D flying, you want the helicopter to behave identically whether it's right-side-up or inverted. This requires a pitch curve that provides zero pitch at center stick, and equal amounts of positive and negative pitch at high and low stick. Even if you're not into 3D flying just yet, centering the collective setup at zero degrees will still make the rest of the setup process a bit easier. There is an exception to this guideline, however. Some helicopters, designed specifically for beginners, will not have enough collective range to allow a symmetrical pitch curve. If you can only get 12 degrees of total pitch range, for example, you're better off with +8 to -4. A symmetrical range of +/-6 degrees will barely get off the ground. The rest of this page assumes that you have enough pitch range available to set up a symmetrical pitch curve. If you don't, skip the idle-up-1 and idle-up-2 pitch setups, and just aim for +8 to -4 in normal mode and idle-up-1. This will get you all the way into basic aerobatics.
Get +/- 8 degrees of collective throw. Ideally this should just be a matter of adjusting the ATVs on the pitch channel, though you may find that some mechanical or subtrim adjustment is necessary if you find something binding in the rotor head before the blades reach 8 degrees in either direction. Do not change the middle or end points of pitch curve - stick with the 10, - ,50, - ,90 settings we established earlier. Feel free to adjust the 2nd and 4th points though, so you get -4 and +4 degrees, respectively. If you need to change the zero-degree / half-stick point, use your subtrim. If you need to change end 8-degree / full- or low-stick points, use your ATVs.	The 8 degree figure is mathematically friendly, as we'll see when we set up normal node. If you're running a modified motor, high-nitro fuel (e.g. Cool Power 30%), or short blades, you may be able to take advantage of more pitch, but we'll sort this out later. For the moment, just stick with +/- 8 degrees. You need to leave the compressed pitch curve in place because later we'll use 100% pitch to get a little extra top-end for throttle hold.
Get -4 and +8 for normal mode. At this point, your subtrim and ATVs are set, and you don't need to change them. This can all be done with the normal-mode pitch curve. Shoot for a five-point pitch curve like -4 -1, +2, +5, +8. Ideally, your transmitter's pitch curve settings would be 30,45,60,75,90, so that's a good place to start. Note that there's three degrees of pitch change between each of the five pitches - that should give you a very linear "feel" no matter how much collective pitch you're using. Note also that there's a 15% change between each pitch curve percentage. Theoretically, it should be that simple... However, with all those links and levers and their non-linear characteristics, your transmitter settings are bound to need a bit of tweaking from that "mathematically ideal" starting point. Don't worry about the transmitter's numbers, it's the pitch gauge that matters most.	I like linear pitch curves. While I like a symmetrical pitch range in for 3D flying, I only want half as much negative pitch for precise hovering. I'm not picky about where the stick is when I'm hovering, so the hover point falls where it may. With a pitch range of -4 to +8, I end up hovering at about 5/8-stick instead of the 1/2-stick position many folks recommend. So be it. The linear pitch curve gives a very consistent 'feel' no matter where the collective stick happens to be at, and I think this is preferable to an artificially-skewed 1/2 stick hover. If you've got 12 degrees of pitch range and you're hovering at 1/2 stick, you're 5-point pitch curve probably looks like -4, 0, 4, 6, 8. That's bound to over-sensitive below half-stick (where 1/4 stick movement covers 4 degrees of pitch), while it's going to be mushy above half-stick (where 1/4 stick movement covers 2 degrees of pitch).
Pick an idle-up-1 pitch range If you spend a lot of time doing forward flight and simple aerobatics (loops, stall turns), the normal-mode pitch range is probably your best bet. Duplicating it in your idle-up-1 mode will allow you to switch between the two modes seamlessly. No matter what you're doing with a 30-class helicopter, I still recommend copying over the normal-mode pitch settings. If you're flying a 60-class helicopter, or if you're getting beyond 'airplane-style' aerobatics, I recommend tossing a coin unless you feel strongly one way or the other.	The reduced pitch range we just set up for normal-mode acts almost like a 'dual rate' for your collective control. With only 75% degrees of the total pitch range under your thumb, small precise changes are easier than idle-up-2 where you've got the full range at your disposal. I find that this reduced pitch range makes it a bit easier to get a solid hover out of a lightweight 30-class heli. With a 60-class helicopter, everyday hovering is no problem in idle-up-2, but it doesn't hurt to have a reduced pitch range available for contest hovering. I've generally had idle-up-1 set up just like idle-up-2 in my Futura SE, but at a recent contest (two days before I wrote this) I switched to normal mode about 1/3 of the way into a precision hovering segment. I can't say for sure if it was a just a mental crutch or if it really helped, but I did much better than I expected in the contest. I'm going to copy my normal-mode settings into idle-up-1 as soon as I finish writing this. This is strictly a matter of personal preference though.
Pick a throttle-hold pitch range. If you're new to autorotations, or if you're not interested in inverted autos, copy the normal-mode pitch curve over to your throttle-hold curve. If you're doing (or learning) inverted autos, copy the idle-up-2 pitch curve over to your throttle-hold curve.	If you're not doing aerobatic autos, you don't need the wide pitch range and you'll probably be more comfortable just holding the collective at the bottom during the descent. If you are doing aerobatic autos, you might as well have a symmetrical pitch curve for those, too. This will allow you to better control the inverted portion of your descent, and it lets you do your autos with a pitch curve that you're already familiar with. If you copied the normal-mode curve, try to practice your autos from normal mode. If you copied the idle-up-2 curve, practice them from idle-up-2. This will minimize the bobble that tends to happen when you enter throttle hold. It will also minimize the bigger bobble that will happen if you need to bail out of an auto gone wrong.
Tweak throttle-hold just a bit. Take that top point and crank it up from 90% to 100%.	This will give you just a touch of extra top-end pitch at the ends of your autos. You should end up with about 10 degrees. Anything more is probably not going to help any; you may find that using less doesn't really change things much either. By the time your stick is up that far, your head speed is probably so low that you're about a quarter-second away from touchdown no matter what you do.
Set your cyclic throws. I've got a whole web page on this topic.	It's a long story!
Check for binding at the extremes. Select the idle-up-2 flight mode. With the radio off, move the servos to full positive collective and full forward cyclic (it doesn't really matter which direction actually, as long as the swashplate is a full tilt). Slowly and gently rotate the rotor head by hand. Watch for any binding in the rotor head linkages. Feel carefully for any resistance as you turn the rotor. Keep an eye out for servo movement - if the something starts to bind up, they will be forced away from their present positions. Make at least two full rotations of the rotor head, just to be sure. Now go to full negative collective and full cyclic, and watch for the same thing. With any luck, you'll encounter no binding in either case. If you run into binding at both ends, try to find a way to get more blade pitch change with less swashplate movement. Depending on your helicopter, you might want to change the Bell-Hiller ratio, or install longer mixing levers, for example. If you find binding at just one end, try to find a way to move the swashplate away from the bind without changing the blade pitch. Are there any links you can lengthen and shorten to move the swashplate away from the binding zone without changing the blade pitch? As a last resort, consider using less swashplate tilt to get the roll rate you want.	At best, binding will shorten the life of your collective or cyclic servos. At worst, it will strip them out in a heartbeat. Neither of these are optimal, of course. Many folks are content to allow a bit of binding, on the assumption that they will never actually command full collective and full cyclic at the same time. I personally think that's optimistic - or maybe it's just that I know I can't be relied upon to follow the rules all the time. I prefer to solve the binding problem while I'm setting up the helicopter, rather than while I'm flying the helicopter. This can take a lot of tweaking, depending on the helicopter. Specific instructions for each helicopter would easily double the size of this document, so I suggest you get in touch with other folks who fly your favorite model of helicopter and ask them what they've done to maximize their pitch range. If you cut back on swashplate tilt, you may find yourself needing to change the Bell-Hiller ratio or lightening the flybar paddles to get the roll rate you want. In either case, you're sacrificing some flybar stabilization. It's not the end of the world, but it's not ideal. If the washout mixer is slamming into the top of the swashplate twice per revolution at 1700 RPM, how long are the cyclic servo's gears going to hold out? My guess is not very long, so I personally can't stand the thought of linkages binding when I'm in flight.
Set up the throttle linkage. This is surprisingly easy if you do it right. For starters, take the throttle linkage off of the carburetor throttle arm and the servo horn. Hold the throttle link in your fingers such that the ball links are directly over the centers of the arms they connect to - the engine side of the link should be right over the center of the throttle barrel, and the servo side of the link should be right over the center of the servo output shaft. Lengthen or shorten the linkage as necessary until you can have the links centered over the carburetor barrel and the servo output shaft. You're not going to connect it to either of these, of course - this exercise is just to get the linkage length set right. Put the ball on the servo horn so that the servo arm length is equal to the carburetor arm length, or as close as you can get them. Set the middle point of your normal mode throttle curve to 50% for a moment, set the throttle at half stick, and install the throttle servo arm on whatever spline makes the servo arm perpendicular (90 degrees) to the linkage. Use the throttle channel subtrim if necessary. Install the linkage. Set the throttle ATVs such that the throttle linkage almost binds at 100% and almost binds when you hit the kills switch or bring the throttle trim all the way down (depending on how you prefer to stop the engine). You should end up with ATVs that are almost equal. If not, use the subtrim to change the center of the throttle servo's throw, and balance the ATVs accordingly.	You'd be surprised how silly your throttle curve will look if you don't have the linkage set up right. After I installed a new YS ST2 in my Futura, I was beginning to think the motor was a dog because at "70% throttle" it was only pulling 1450 RPM in a hover, and when I give it full throttle it could only manage 1400 RPM at 8 degrees. After re-doing the throttle linkages, I found it hovering at 1650 RPM and 65% throttle. With the engine running up in its powerband, climbing out at 8 degrees and 1650 RPM was no problem. Unless you set your throttle curves right, you have no idea what your throttle setting really is. I could probably have solved the problem by setting my throttle curve for 85% in a hover, but fixing the linkages is really the "right" way to address that problem.
Set up the gyro and rudder linkage.	This is quite involved... I've actually got an entire page devoted to heading-hold gyro setup, and a separate page for standard gyro setup.
Got a GV-1? Here's a quick overview of GV-1 setup. This isn't everything, but it does cover the things I look for when I'm troubleshooting someone else's installation. Connections - connect the GV-1's throttle input to the throttle channel of the receiveer, and connect the throttle servo to the GV-1's throttle output. Connect the GV-1's "speed" input to a channel controlled by a three-position switch. Do not bother with the GV-1's "on-off" connection. If you want to use the GV-1's mixture control features, you're on your own - I haven't tried them yet. Gear Ratio - set it to match your heli's gearing Speeds - Set S1 for "-off-", set S2 for 1500, set S3 for 1700. Servo Travel Limit - the most-overlooked aspect of GV-1 setup. Put the transmitter in normal mode. Press the "func+" key until you get to a screen that says "Lmt Idle." Bring the throttle stick all the way down (with the trim set for a good idle) and press "data+" The GV-1 will read "Lmt High." Bring the throttle all the way up and press "data+" The GV-1 will read "Lmt Stop." Bring the throttle all the way down and hit the kill switch or bring the trim down, as you would to stop the motor, then press "data+" once more. StSw - Set this to "on." Verify Switch Conditions - go to the "SwCd" or "switch condition" screen. this will read "on" if the GV-1 sees the settings it needs to engage itself, and "off" if it sees the settings in needs to disengage itself. First, set the 'speed select' switch to something other than the 'off' position. Select normal mode and verify that the governor turns off at low stick and turns on at high stick. Select idle-up and verify that the governor stay on at all stick positions. Repeat for idle-up-2. Hit the throttle hold switch and verify that the governor turns itself off from any flight mode. You're done.	Yes, I only use two speed settings, not three. A 'hovering' headspeed and a '3D' headspeed is all I bother with. In fact I hardly ever use the 'hovering' speed... But I do use the 'off' position at the start of every day - the GV-1 will adjust the throttle to compensate for any mixture issues, so I prefer to fly without it for a couple minutes, or until I'm happy with the mixture. The 1500/1700 settings are just a place to start. Adjust them to suit your tastes. I fly my Futura SE at 1675, and my Concept SRX at 1900 or 1950. The Futura has a 'hover' headspeed of 1450, which I hardly ever use. Pick speeds that suit you and your helicopters. StSw is key. With this turned on, the GV-1 will automatically disengage when the throttle goes below about 25%. This simplifies throttle hold setup, and makes it easy to stop the motor at the end of a flight - just select normal mode and bring the throttle down to an idle like you normally do. So long as your idle-up curves are set so they never go below 25% (and they shouldn't!), the governor will work just fine for aerobatics. Using StSw for all this also enables you to skip the on/off channel, and does away with any need you might have had for transmitter p-mixes to disable to governor in throttle hold or normal mode. The SwCd check just ensures that the GV-1 really does what I expect it to do. The 'limit' settings tell the GV-1 where the throttle servo is allowed to go. Since the GV-1 takes over the throttle servo control, just setting your transmitter's ATVs isn't enough - you also have to tell the GV-1 where the throttle servo's limits are. To verify the setup, go to the "Test Idle" screen. Pressing the "data+" key will cause the throttle servo to go to the idle setting for a moment. Pressing it again will cause the servo to go to full throttle, pressing it once more will cause the servo to go to the 'off' position.
Pick a head speed You might be tempted to skip this step if you have a GV-1, but I suggest setting up your throttle curves anyhow, just in case. If the magnet is ejected from the fan, or if the sensor fails, or if anything else goes wrong, you'll be flying with your radio's throttle curves. Sensor failures are pretty rare, but disappearing magnets are not. If you have a friend with a tach, pick a head speed, hover, and tweak the throttle curves until you can hover at that head speed in all flight modes (and inverted in idle-up-2, if you're able). If you have a GV-1, but not a tach, set the GV-1 for your preferred head speed, and switch it on and off during a hover. Your ears will tell you if you head speed is higher or lower without the GV-1 engaged. If you don't have a GV-1 or a tach, hover, and check your collective at that stick position. You should be between four and five degrees.	The throttle curve values I suggested above are only starting points. They will need some fine-tuning to suit your own particular combination of engine, rotor blade, gear ratio, fuel, exhaust system, altitude, humidity, phase-of-moon, and so on. Don't be too worried if you don't have a GV-1 or a friend with a tach. They do make things a bit easier, but we all got along quite well without them before they came along.
Fine-tune the collective range. If you're not comfortable flying inverted, have someone else help you out with this phase. Read this all the way through, and remember that sometimes it makes sense to carry out these two adjustments in the opposite order they're presented here. If you have a GV-1, set the speed select to the 'off' position. Hover right-side up for a moment, then punch it, climbing vertically with 100% throttle and full collective. Roll it over and climb inverted with 100% throttle and full negative collective. Chances are, you'll find that one orientation gives you a faster climb rate and a lower head speed, while the other orientation climbs more slowly and overspeeds a bit. If both orientations are overspeeding or lugging drastically, skip the next paragraph and come back to it later. Use the pitch channel subtrim to shift the entire pitch range. Don't use the ATVs. Make subtrim adjustments until you can carry out the experiment above with the same head speed and climb rate in either direction. Once you get the head speeds and climb rates equalized, consider the head speed you're getting in your climbs. Are both directions overspeeding a bit? If so, add an equal percentage of ATV in both directions to add some pitch in both directions. If you end up lugging the motor no matter which way you climb, subtract an equal amount of ATV in both directions.	Naturally, not everyone will find +/- 8 degrees of collective to be ideal. I find that it works pretty well with my Futura SE and its 710mm blades, but my Concept runs better with 9.5 degrees in either direction. And, pitch gauges lie. Due to linkage slop and rotor blade variations, you'll probably find that no matter how hard you try to set up the pitch range symmetrically, you end up with a helicopter that lugs down when you climb in one direction, and overspeeds when you roll it over and climb the other direction. By moving the subtrim, you add a little pitch on one side while subtracting an equal amount of pitch from the other side. The nice linear pitch curves we set up earlier will remain just as linear. If you use the ATV's to balance out the pitch range, you will end up putting "knee" in the pitch curve, and you'll end up with more sensitive response upright and less sensitive response inverted, or vice versa. Stick with subtrims to equalize the climb rates in either orientation. By making equal ATV adjustments in both directions, you can increase and decrease your overall collective range without disturbing the linear pitch response we've worked so hard to achieve.
Rethink your head speed choices. You may have found, in the above exercise, that your engine can carry more than 8 degrees of pitch. If this is the case, you might consider going back to 8 degrees of pitch and using a higher head speed. Or, if you found that 8 degrees of pitch was too much, you might want to use a lower head speed for an increased pitch range.	Don't get too concerned with the figures other people are using for their helicopters. There are so many variables involved, it's very difficult to compare figures meaninfully. I recently saw Bob Johnston, for example, running 1650 RPM and +/- 8.5 degrees of pitch. He's got 710mm blades so he isn't lacking for thrust. I've been running 690mm tapered blades lately, and even with +/- 9.5 degrees and 1750 RPM, I don't think I have his top speed or climb rate.
Fine-tune the cyclic response. If the helicopter doesn't roll fast enough, even with full swashplate tilt, put on some lighter flybar paddles or shift the Bell-Hiller ratio for more Bell (direct) input and less Hiller (flybar) input. Check your helicopter's manual for help with the Bell-Hiller ratio, it's beyond the scope of this document. Note that changing the Bell-Hiller ratio will probably change your pitch range as well, so you'll want to repeat the 'check for binding' and 'fine tune the collective range' steps. As I said, this is not a linear process. If it rolls too fast, or faster than you want it to, consider flying in low rates. That's my favorite approach. Or, shift the Bell-Hiller ratio for more Hiller, or move your flybar weights out until the roll rate is just where you want it. If you don't have flybar weights, get some. They're relatively cheap and they allow you to tailor the roll rate with just a couple minutes of work.	Light flybar paddles are a low-cost way to get faster rolls. If your helicopter has adjustable Bell-Hiller mixing, you may have a zero-cost way to tune the roll rate to your liking. If your roll rate is faster than you want it, you might consider taming the response mechanically. This has the added advantage of making the helicopter more stable against wind and air-speed trim changes. However, I prefer to fly in low rates. This way I can get my full cyclic authority back just by going into high rates. Having snappy cyclics can give me the extra confidence I need to try something new. The quicker the heli rolls, the quicker I can get out of whatever trouble I've gotten myself into.