Hover question Sim Vs RL

[Jermo]

Ok... my Lovely Bride surprised me with an early Birthday present (March), I now own realflight G3.5.

I notice that it's nearly impossible to hover in one spot for any extended period of time without nearly a constant feather touch on the sticks. I'm able to do the hover training for a bit but get tired after about 15 seconds (seems like ALOT longer) and start bobbling around alot (I hit AR , land, rest and take off again..)..

I'm just wondering how close this is to actually flying my Rexie. My wife's idea was to save cash by having me crash the sim (and my BCX when it comes back from HH) rather than the Rexie (at $12 per set of blades).

Just seems to take persistant attention and total concentration with most corrections being feather touches on the sticks (collective mostly).

I also wonder if the sim is more sensitive than the real thing to prepare you better for it?
Jermo

[AlanMcSwain]

Jermo...

Yes you must stay on top of a heli in hover as they are, by nature, flying machines that lack what is known as "Positive Stability".

How realistic to any particular heli your sim behaves is governed by many factors.

But it is more important that you realize that the most important thing the sim is teaching you is NOT how QUICKLY or HOW FAR to move the sticks, but rather WHICH DIRECTION to move them and WHEN. How quickly and how far is what is know as a "Feedback Loop" operation which a fancy way of saying that, because you're watching the heli respond to your inputs, you can very rapidly correct your stick deflection actions. This is just like learning not to over or under steer while learning to drive a car.

If you find the Trex model sim to be too taxing, switch to a Raptor 60. If that is still too lively. then down load the freeware simulator FMS and install it. Your Great Pains USB controller can be used with FMS as well. I would be happy to email you a few good very docile heli models for FMS that are excellent for early sim training.

I can also tell you this:

The small helis ARE harder to fly for beginners because the small size allows for less gyroscopic dampening, meaning things happen faster than larger helis.

BUT...If you get good enough to fly your Great Pains sim aerobatically, doing loops, rolls, inverted flight, a little nose in and repeated landings and takeoffs, you **will** be ready to hover the real thing.

Alan

[Jermo]

I'm having a blast with the sim. Level 6 (barely) on the orientation thing. Where I get into trouble is drifting. I'm feather adjusting collective to get back over the correct spot then opposite to stop. what happens is I essentually end up dancing around the correct spot. When I get tired I end up overcorrecting.

I can get level 5 but level 6 is all but impossible for me at this point.

I'm learning and having a blast plus my wife figures in one night the sim has already paid for itself :O . I do play around and just fly. I tend to focus on doing the moves that cause me to crash the most so I can learn to get out of them.

One move so far I haven't figure out is a 60 degree pitch up with 45 degree heading left or right. The Heli just appears to fall out of the sky almost like it's a magic spot in the simulation. I'm not sure what causes it but if I have enough height when it happens I can usually throttle up, yaw around 90 degrees in the same direction of the yaw then pitch up and level out. It's not reflex yet but I'm working on it.
Jermo

[Seeker]

In the 3.5 G3 version in hover practice, it's very hard to keep the bird steady. It's easier to just fly the bird at the field "so to say" in the sim.

If you have your own transmitter, you can hook it up to the sim via the extra cables and set up some expo and that would help.

Great job in the manuver training. Treat that part like it's the real thing and you'll be amazed at how quick you'll learn to fly the TRex.