Controlling RC Helicopters

What you can do with an RC helicopter (such as going up and down) are actions initiated by radio signals from the transmitter. The number of channels on a transmitter tells you the number of actions that you can control on the RC.

These actions usually involve things like changing the pitch (tilt) of the rotor blades or making the blades spin faster. A hobby-grade RC helicopter normally requires at least four or five channels for normal flight that closely mimics the controls and flight of full-size helicopters. Toy-grade helicopters may have only 2 or 3 channels and much more limited actions.