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Basic Aerobatics and 3D

Set Up for Aerobatics

Since your helicopter is going to be put through high speed moves and high/low G loadings in this part of flying, it is important to make sure everything is secure inside the helicopter. This includes batteries, servos, wires, gyros, everything that could potentially be dislodged. The next thing to consider is the power output of your heli. It needs to have sufficient power to pull the helicopter through the moves, and, if neccessary, have enough power to safely let you bail out if one doesn't go to plan. Basically if you have a modern helicopter with an engine in the kits acceptable range, it should have plenty of power. I would recommend putting an upgraded exhaust on, these help no end with mixture control, sound levels, cleanliness, and most importantly, power. Hatori, Weston, and Thunder Tiger make some nice examples, I am currently using a stainless steel Zimmerman exhaust made specifically for the Raptor and engines that are used with that machine, so it is a perfect fit, and has performed flawlessly so far. Another thing to look at is the reciever aerial, you must make sure that whatever angle the helicopter is poiting, be it upright, sideways, or whatever, that it cannot become entangled with the main blades. The pitch range should be around -9 to +9 degrees at low and high end, and 0 degrees in the middle, with the throttle V looking something like 100%, 50%, 100%. This may need to be tailored to your helicopter, but for now it will do fine. Now lets move onto the fun stuff!

Stall Turns
Not a full blown aerobatic, but it looks cool as hell. Fly along into the wind at a fair speed, pull the nose up gently so it is pointing vertical, and when it is vertical reduce the ptch to 0 degrees to stop it coming backwards. As the forward motion of the helicopter comes to a stop, just before it begins to fall backwards, do a 180 degree turn with the tail so it is pointing at the ground, let it fall for a second or two, add power, and at the same time pull the nose upto fly out the same path you entered at. Other variations of this are 540 or 900 degree revolutions at the top. These take a little more tail authority and time to complete, but look cool.

Loops
The first real stunt to perform, but it can also be hard to make look smooth. In Idle Up (or stunt mode) fly along high and nice and fast, into wind, and slowly pull the nose up, don't yank it back as this will do nothing but lose your speed and not gain any height. Keep pulling back cyclic, as the nose is vertical, you should be at 0 degrees, then when inverted, you should have a little negative pitch pulled, keep easing the nose around and level off, adding pitch to send you back into forward flight. You can vary the amount of pitch you use on the way round, for instance I like keeping a little bit of positive pitch the whole way round, it makes the loop nice and smooth. The only down side is that you have to be careful with the cyclic so you avoid rock hard ground.

Rolls
Personally I think this is the easiest aerobatic move. Fly along the exact same as you would for a loop, and pull the cyclic over to one side (R/C Helicopters tend to roll right smoother than left because of the rotation of the blades), when it is on a knife edge you should have 0 degrees of pitch pulled, when inverted you should have a little negative, then back to 0 for the other knife edge, then positive to fly out. Flying them into wind is a little easier, but downwind rolls look smoother and faster (because the wind carries you through).