Flight Training videos - Sim and real life!

[RcSuperSales]

Great vids Bob. Yeah the thing that was different for me is when you are doing turns in a real helicopter you do not use rudder like you do in an RC Helicopter. You use basically all Cyclic and you use rudder to keep yourself in trim. The only time you essentially use rudder in the real heli is during hovering and obviously you could do some crazy fast piro turns in a real one, I for one am not profficient enough to try that yet, Good stuff though.

Also great vid on the autos. When doing an auto in the real one you throttle down, drop collective then bump up slightly. I find on these RC you almost have to give a little bit of negative, not to much depending on the wind. And like the real one when doing your flare in order to keep up RPMs or headspeed, you lower collective during your flare, so they are pretty much the same. You may want to make a note for people. You SHOULD always do Autos into the wind so the Blade Tip Vortices are traveling away from the helicopter, not into it, then you can get into settling with power, and that is no fun :(. Also when doing autos in the real thing you are monitoring your RPM's on your tachometer and your Air Speed. Not any gauges to look at when doing with these so it is mostly by look and feel. I can't wait to work up the gumption to do it with my RC helicopter rather than the sim. Autos by the way in a real helicopter, are a Helluva lot of fun. Keep up the awesome work Bob, you rock man.

Kyle

[RcSuperSales]

Now don't quote me on this because I may be wrong. I dont know about how forward speed will help actual headspeed (I think it does) BUT I am pretty sure one of the factors is that a helicopter has a downwash and if you were to hover in one place the helicopter would have to work slightly harder to maintain a hover because of it. However, if the heli is continously moving forward, if will always be coming into "fresh" undisturbed air, and thus have to work less hard. Hope that helps.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

Edit: I see some one has said almost the same thing. What we need is an engineer to explain to us. :)

Everyone is on the right track. This is kind of hard when you are first teaching this principle to someone learning to fly helicopters. I fly real helis, currently 120 hours and finishing up my Instrument Rating and soon Commercial license, so I am by no means an expert. Rather than having me explain it I found this on the internet and it is a perfect and very well written


Helicopter Aerodynamics

Helicopters experience unique forces when in flight, and the design of the rotor blades helps overcome problems created by these forces. When a helicopter is hovering, the speed at which the tips of the rotor blades move is constant. However, as soon as the helicopter starts moving forward, the tip speed begins to change as the blades rotate around the fuselage. The tip speed increases as the blade advances toward the nose in the direction of flight. This is because the speed of the helicopter is added to the speed of the tip. As the tip passes the nose of the helicopter and begins retreating around, the tip speed decreases, because the speed of the helicopter is subtracted from the tip speed. Since lift increases with airflow speed, the advancing blade will produce more lift than the retreating blade. Unless adjustments are made for this difference in lift, the helicopter will roll over.

To compensate for the unbalanced lift, Spanish aeronautical engineer Juan de la Cierva conceived the idea of the flexible, or articulated, rotor blade, in the 1920s. The articulated rotor blade is used today on all helicopters. Each main rotor blade is connected to the shaft by a flexible hinge. The hinges allow the rotor blades to rise and fall slightly as they rotate. This is called flapping, and it allows the advancing blade to rise slightly to avoid creating too much lift. The retreating blade, creating less lift, naturally flaps down so as to increase lift. Flapping allows the differences in lift caused by uneven rotor tip speed to cancel out, producing a stable ride. Many helicopters use mechanical hinges with lubricated bearings, but some use flexible straps made of a composite material in order to reduce the required maintenance.

Helicopters require different amounts of lift and thrust at different times during flight, because the aerodynamic forces acting on them change during hovering and acceleration. The power needed to overcome the aerodynamic drag, or wind resistance, of a helicopter increases as speed increases. There is also drag on the blades themselves as they pass through the air. And there is the power needed to produce lift, which decreases as the helicopter moves faster. These separate forces combine to require more power for flight as a helicopter takes off and hovers, but less power as it flies forward. However, as speed increases, eventually more power is needed. For example, a helicopter may require 1,100 horsepower to hover. But at a forward speed of 110 km/h (70 mph) the required power may drop to approximately 600 horsepower, since the helicopter is moving rather than hovering. But as speed increases, so does drag, and so at a speed of around 240 km/h (150 mph), as much as 1,200 horsepower may be required.

Helicopter speed in forward flight is also limited because of physical stresses on the blades at high speeds. As forward speeds approach 320 km/h (200 mph), the tip speed of the advancing rotor blade approaches the speed of sound, increasing vibration levels and required power. The Westland Lynx, a British military helicopter, holds the speed record for a helicopter. The Lynx achieved a speed of 401 km/h (249 mph) in 1986."

Okay here is some other helpful info on ETL or Effective Translational Lift. This will really explain why a helicopter is more efficient when flying forward http://www.dynamicflight.com/aerodynamics/translational_lift/. Hope this helps clear some things up for anyone wondering. Just look online about helicopters, there is a lot of information. They are a blast to fly. here is a couple pics of the helis I have flown. The yellow one is the first one I ever flew.

[Finless]

New video added. It's below but also added to the first post in this topic.

Another "Stick Cam" training video. Basic loops, rolls, and flips!

Let me know if you all think this stuff works?

Video Link ->"Stick Cam" - Basic Loops, Rolls, and Flips (40 Megs) (http://video.helifreak.com/?subpath=finless/training&filename=loopsrolls.wmv)

[bullaculla]

I think they are great Bob, but a little late for me :P
It still helps tho :)

[jgiot]

Yo BoB,

Excellent vid.
And yes "this stuff works" !

Jg.

[helibalou]

Bob,

Thanks for your devotion and dedication and taking the time to helping others out in this hobby, I for one love your videos.

John

[motokrazrboy]

yea man i definately think you should keep doing this kinda stuff i appreciate very much what your doing

[coolbreeze8]

nice job Bob I love the stick cam man kept it up :smokin:

Thanks
Dewey

[Finless]

Cool.... I love doing these so what would you all like to see next? PLEASE dont tell me Choas or Piro Flips!!!!

I want to keep this to basics and I cant do piro flips well enough to teach them anyway! One day though ;)

Bob

[WillJames]

SWEET Bob, I finally downloaded them. Very good info!! Thanks Finless and Jason!!

[jgiot]

Hi,

How about down side up hovering, do's, dont's and tips or maby tick tock's , funnel's ?

Thanx

John

[DbyMA]

How about coordinated turns in backwards flight, inverted flight, and backwards inverted flight?

Or even demonstrations of IRCHA Pilot Proficiency Program (http://ircha.org/pilot-proficiency-program/) or BMFA Heli A & B Tests (http://www.bmfa.org/achievement/index.html).

cheers,

Mac

[DA VINCI]

Ciao Bob,

Great Vids, you'll turn us all into proflyers showin us all the stick moves!!

[nerdo5953]

Once again another useful contribution Bob!

There is indeed great need for such videos.

I add to the list figure 8 :D

[deepelemetns]

wow simply awesome BOB:thumbup:

[Antony Konnarides]

Just managed my first roll, from watching your vid.

Keep it up.

[Finless]

:thumbup:

[TitaniumZX]

Bob, I know you hear this all the time but we all really, really appreciate you taking the time to do all your videos. Again, thanks!!!


Forgot to mention, these videos are GREAT. For those of you that play World of Warcraft, I just gained 1000 XPs just by watching these videos.

[Wrench69]

OK I get asked all the time for flight training videos...
Please let me know if you think these are worth while, thoughts and suggestions, and if I should continue doing these?

NEW 9/30/2007 - "STICK CAM" training video - Basic Loops, Rolls, and Flips
Video Link ->"Stick Cam" - Basic Loops, Rolls, and Flips (40 Megs) (http://video.helifreak.com/?subpath=finless/training&filename=loopsrolls.wmv)


9/2007 - Jason Bell "STICK CAM" training videos
OK Jason gave me the opportunity to video him and use a second camera to video the sticks. Check out the "CRACK" Piro Flips, Rainbows, and Hurricanes!
Video Link ->Jason Bell "Stick Cam" - Buzzin the Border September 2007 (50 Megs) (http://video.helifreak.com/?subpath=finless/bborder2007&filename=jbellsticks.wmv)

Jason Bell doing Trex450 "STICK CAM" training
Video Link ->Jason Bell Trex450 with "Stick Cam" - (32 Megs) (http://video.helifreak.com/?subpath=finless/bborder2007&filename=bell450stick.wmv)


9/2007 - Autos in real life with "STICK CAM" showing the sticks
First up is how to learn to do Auto Rotations in REAL LIFE.
It's how to shoot autos in REAL LIFE and I did a picture in picture showing my sticks while doing them. As you can see jamming the negative is NOT the key as this vid shows.

VIDEO -> Learning to shoot autos on a 450 and showing the sticks (39 Megs) (http://video.helifreak.com/?subpath=finless/training&filename=autos_sticks.wmv)


9/2007 - Learning basic loops
Learning basic loops using the simulator (28 Megs) (http://video.helifreak.com/?subpath=finless/training&filename=loops.wmv)

Added 7/2006
BASIC hover training (19 Megs) (http://video.helifreak.com/?subpath=finless/training&filename=hovertraining.wmv)

Auto training using the sim G2. G3.5 for some reason is not very realisitic in my opinion.
Learning to do Auto Rotations (17 Megs) (http://video.helifreak.com/?subpath=finless/training&filename=autorotations.wmv)

Next up...
Learning Forward flight and transition back to hover (19 Megs) (http://video.helifreak.com/?subpath=finless/training&filename=fftraining.wmv)

Bob

These are great.

Suggestion..

If you are using pheonix can you record a demo and make it available?

[Twism]

Hey finless, thanks for the vids, watched them a while ago and now I can do flips, rolls and loops :D

Whats up next? :P

[Finless]

Auto's ;)

Bob

[Rollingball]

Auto's ;)

Bob
Saved my heli from not one but two busted Align 430XL motor shafts:thumbup:

[Twism]

I tell you, I wish I could just build up the courage to try autos. I practise in phoenix and can do them fine, I even manage to pull off an inverted auto every now and again. Unfortunatly, I dont have enough confidence in phoenix's realism to try and shift my skills over to the real world.

[Naruto28]

Hey Bob (or Jason if he's around here), how is he doing those "crack" maneuvers? Is he just shaking his hand back and forth on the cyclic? I've always wondered how the pros do that, but the video of his hand shaking all over while still doing hurricanes etc. is crazy. Thanks again for the vids!

[Finless]

Yep that is what they are doing to do CRACK! They shake the sticks like that AND also continue to control the heli.

CRAZY MAN.

Bob