Blindly following along

I was following 2 videos demonstrating how to build the EXI 450 heli. one from RCMikey.com and the other from hobbypartz.com / xheli.com (shown on the EXI450 page at xheli.com). Since all of this is brand new to me I was trying to understand the principles that were discussed in the videos but was still following along step by step what was shown in the videos. the video from rcmikey uses an older version of the heli so the parts and the locations of the servos didn't really match what I have so I was watching the videos from xheli.com site (the videos, demonstration, and explanations were not as good, but the model they were using is the actual one I have so I was using that as a reference).

what I found best to mount the servos was to take the entire rotor mount off the chassis and work on it like this as it was easier to access all the screws without having to deal with the rest of the heli (this was suggested from xheli.com videos but I took it an extra step forward by actually doing all the calibration and setup while extracted from the heli):

2 Things:
1. Since I was following 2 instructions I kinda mixed things up. I installed the servos based on xhelis videos, but I oriented the servos based on the videos from rcmikey which will lead to a major issue (to be discussed later).
2. I installed the elevator servo (1 in the rear of the rotor) internally as shown on xheli videos which requires accessing the screws from the inside which is not ideal - I already stripped 1 screw and access is very hard. I think mounting it  externally would be easier.

Not knowing any better, I accidentally installed the entire thing in reverse and had to unmount and remount the rear elevator servo 3-4 times... so installing it internally was a real drag... but I'm learning.

I then hooked up the transmitter to the PC and programmed the channels to tune the servos positioning to be parallel to the ground:

As you can see I am using mickysrc video as a reference for some things. I then had the servos setup parallel as such:

And I was able to (after installing the rear servo) connect it to the swash plate and mount it back in the heli chassis.

Now as I said earlier I had things mixed up and being a newbie it was not obvious to me at first. After having things put together in the heli I turned on the transmitter and tried to see how the controls work only to find that the swash plate was not moving much, and when it does, it has a very short movement before the servos start binding. What was happening was that I installed the servos with their horns on the bottom which is how it should have been done if using the heli that rcmikey was using, but since I was using a different model with different mounting of the servos, it resulted with the swash plate being too low on the shaft which meant it was bottoming out and not able to have full movement:

I disasssembled the entire thing, and flipped the servos upside down which raised the swash plate to where it needs to be allowing it full movement up and down the shaft:

This also meant that I had to setup the channels controlling those servos on the transmitter to reverse movement as the servos are not "upside down" from their earlier orientation. I realized this after I did a short flight test and noticed the heli would not lift from the ground. a closer inspection made it clear that the pitch of the blades was reversed then needed meaning the servos were causing the heli to pull down when the throttle was pushing upwards making the heli stick to the floor instead of flying upwards.

Lesson learnt: swash plate needs enough clearance for movement, channels should be setup so that pitch is set upwards for flight and all 3 servos move in unison when throttle is raised (all move upwards) if there is inconsistency, reverse that channel to match the others.

On to the next lesson...