if it is ok to use the throttle hold when working on your heli

[syma rc helicopters]

The reason I and most heli pilots who advocate safety recomend this is simple.
When a pilot uses the Thro hold as a method to shut down the motor while working on a heli, they become complacent after some time. Inevitably they begin to rush of forget, and take it for granted the motor is shut down and this opens a door for a terrible accident. Working on a heli at such a close range, it is always best to aire on the side of safety!
The Throttle hold is to prevent damage to your gears should you find yourself going down durring flight, most newcomers will do what comes natural and as they panic, the first thing they do is slam the collective down .

[BaconRaygun]

When doing head setup, I NEVER depend on throttle hold alone... I either un-plug the motor wires, or, on my Fusion50 since the radio gear is powered by the BEC I just power up the gear without powering up the ESC.

Don’t get into the habit of just relying on TH when working on a heli... it’s incredibly easy to accidentally hit the switch and find yourself with an out of control heli on the work bench.

As a rule of thumb... spend as little time possible in the blade (or prop) path of an active ESC.

[Delano013]

You make an interesting and valid point. I too have been guilty of this...mostly because it is fairly convenient to do this. I would say prior to you mentioning this that I may even have developed a false sense of safety from doing this.
The only time I typically unplug the motor is when doing my pitch set up at mid stick. Usually when checking servo operation I just put throttle lock on and use appropriate channel to test servos. With the BEC going thru the ESC, disconnecting it would be a pain and may change my throttle calibration. Any other ideas...now that you have me thinking on this?

Delano

[DeeEff]

Originally Posted by Vicovaludemero

When doing head setup, I NEVER depend on throttle hold alone... I either un-plug the motor wires, or, on my Fusion50 since the radio gear is powered by the BEC I just power up the gear without powering up the ESC.

+1 !

http://www.helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=321704

-Don

[BaconRaygun]

Originally Posted by Delano013

You make an interesting and valid point. I too have been guilty of this...mostly because it is fairly convenient to do this. I would say prior to you mentioning this that I may even have developed a false sense of safety from doing this.
The only time I typically unplug the motor is when doing my pitch set up at mid stick. Usually when checking servo operation I just put throttle lock on and use appropriate channel to test servos. With the BEC going thru the ESC, disconnecting it would be a pain and may change my throttle calibration. Any other ideas...now that you have me thinking on this?

Delano

If you are using the BEC from your ESC, then I'm afraid the best choice is to just unplug the motor. With the helis and airplanes that I have built where I wouldn’t be able to power the radio gear separately, I just install the motor in a way where pulling the wires is easy.

I guess alternately you can loosen the motor and de-mesh it from the main gear... that would essentially do the same, but IMO, that is a bigger PITA then just un-plugging a few wires.

[syma rc helicopters]

Never allow yourself to neglect safety over excitement lesson # 1 .

[smrceo]

I am guilty of using th when working and spooled my 450 up on the bar in my kitchen when I accidentally bumped the switch. I like to use a receiver pack now.

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk

[jamin_00]

Done that many a time just using TH but now I always plug a little ni-cad pack in to the Vbar to supply power for anything setup related.

[krobinson103]

I prefer to remove the earth lead to the motor as well. At worst you will get some twitches and sounds, but if the switch is turned off for some reason with the motor plugged in things could get ugly.

[teb1963]

Hi. I was working on my tail, I had just put new servo and was checking limits. Went to put radio on the table while looking at heli. It was not completely on, slid off, I hit the throttle when catching it from falling...three cuts later. Pretty much healed now. Been a month.

[Timtreo]

I learned my lesson. I trusted the throttle hold doing some setup and acccidently reversed the throttle in the tx. The heli went full speed (even with the throttle hold on) and slid across the table and hit an empty water glass. The glass just exploded and there was tiny pieces of glass on every inch of my apartment. I always disconnect the motor wires now when doing any kind of setup...

[slowflow]

I disconnect the ESC from the receiver and use a battery pack to drive the servos for setup.

[ruku56021]

+1 Disconnect the ESC/Motor or you can also take the blades off. Also with Futaba in the 'Servo' monitor screen be careful when setting the servos to 'neutral' as this also pegs the throttle at half stick.

[ARM_Coder]

I've started a 450 heli by accident once on the workbench, blades on.

Fortunately the soft start was very soft, and I've cut the motor fast enough to prevent damages and injuries.

Now I always unplug 2 wires from the motor (unplugging only one will prevent the motor from spinning, but may fry the ESC).

Cheers!

[TaterTot]

My Walkera 2801Pro Tx will not let me turn on the radio with the TH on.... So that has caused me to not rely on it as much...

[BaconRaygun]

Pretty sure no radio will.... you flip into TH after you turn the radio on, and before you power up your heli.

[TaterTot]

Originally Posted by Vicovaludemero

Pretty sure no radio will.... you flip into TH after you turn the radio on, and before you power up your heli.

Ahh good to know. I just thought it was odd. Doesn't that seem counter intuitive? It's like having to cock a gun before you can turn on the safety... Sure there are ones out there like that, but I don't like it...

[BaconRaygun]

LOL yeh man it really is.... I get it for the other switches, but not TH.

[Commodore8888]

Im guilty of using th to work on my e helis, however all my escs (castle) have slow start as well as not arming unless I bring the throttle stick down to the arm pwm. Any more intensive work besides just tweaking the beastx either gets an rx pack, motor wires pulled, or a 1s pack connected(blades spin extremely slow or not at all). Any other esc that either didn't have the castle type features or I was unfamiliar with had the motor wires pulled.

[kumar2494]

I ony work on my 450 with th hold on. Since i have it on soft start, I figure I will have time to either get away from it, or grab the tx. I wont work on my 600n or whiplash with th hold on.