One comment "from the trenches": I've seen many beginners who read too much kopterit.net and got
totally confused to the absurd (Example: servo endpoints ranging anywhere 50..130 and complaining that the heli is unpredictable).
If you want to become an F3C champ you need to fine-tune the setup. No doubt about that. But if so, you know what you're doing and know how to fly.
But as a beginner it is much more important that the setup is
simple. That means, the beginner is able to fix it himself after a crash.
Keep in mind, the Kopteriopas is written for F3C-ish helis. Most helis sold today - all 450ies, all Align, Honeybee king, Belt are 3D helis. They are
symmetrical. As a beginner I don't do myself a favour if I set them up like a F3C heli.
Often, when I set up someone's heli which doesn't fly well, most of the work was to delete all the nonsense settings and reset everything to factory defaults:
For a beginner who does not plan to do autorotations:
- linear pitch curve
- at "50", all mechanics (servos, bell cranks, washout / mixing levers) are level. Pitch is 0 Remember it's a 3D heli. It's designed for symmetry.
- Maybe raise the low end slightly (i.e. 20-35-50-75-100 instead of 0-25-50-75-100) to avoid slamming it into the ground when you panic.
Pitch range is set in swash mixing menu. And that's it. If someone asks me to set up their heli, that's as much setup as you get
As said, this applies to beginners, and it's of course an opinion. Ironically, the Align 450 manual tells you pretty much the opposite (i.e. asymmetrical setup). But confusing people earns them money
My definition of "perfect setup" for a beginner is (and again, this may differ from Kopteriopas thinking):
A heli that acts like one in the simulator (i.e. Phoenix).