Practice maneuvers?

[matlok]

After 19 years of fixed wing flying I finally got my first heli - I've got it in the air and I can hover nose in and fly it around without crashing (so far!) but I can't always put it or keep it exactly where I want it. What maneuvers/patterns/etc. do you guys recommend practicing to help build good technique and become proficient?

[vera]

My 2 cents... work on a really solid hover. To do that, be very attentive to the rotor disk. Anticipate actions. For example, assume a pretty near perfect setup on the heli. Hovering nose-out you see a bit of right tilt on the rotor disk, to hold position over the ground. Now rudder 90 deg to the right. Anticipate what's going to happen. As you make this turn, what was a right tilt on the disk becomes a nose down tilt. To see why that is, stick a pencil through a little piece of paper. Put a mark on the paper indicating the nose. The paper is the rotor disk. Rotate the paper so the mark (nose) is pointing out. Tilt the pencil to the right as you would with the heli to compensate for drift.. Now, twist the pencil 90 deg clockwise without changing the tilt of the pencil, so that the mark is now pointed to your right. Notice that the mark is now low. What was a right tilt is translated into a nose down tilt due to the rotation on the vertical axis. So, as you rudder to the right you will also need just a little smidge of back elevator and a little right cyclic to maintain the right tilt relative to the heli. Otherwise, if you do nothing but rudder to the right the heli will start moving to the right because of nose-down and drifting to the left because of loss of right tilt.

Another. Start with the "pencil heli" pointed nose-out, right tilt. Now turn it all the way around. Hold the right tilt on the pencil, because unless you mess with the cyclic the vertical and longitudinal axiis will not move. After turning the pencil heli around the tilt is then to the left side of the heli, backwards from what it should be.

Another. Starting with nose-out, rudder the pencil heli 90 deg to the left. Now, the heli is nose up and no lateral tilt. So, backwards it goes and drifting to its left.

Keep in mind that the flybar is a gyroscope and it's going to try to keep the rotor disk tilted in whatever way so long as there's no change in cyclic. The heli rotates under that disk when you make a rudder turn leaving the tilt as it was, which isn't what it should be for the new heading. IN other words, if you're facing north in a nose-out hover the rotor disk will be tilted to the east to stay in place. If you swing the nose around to the west the tilt of the rotor is still towards the east, which is now behind the heli instead of toward its right.

Making rudder turns in a hover is aggrivating because of this need to repair the tilt on the disk, so that makes it a good thing to practice. Of course, you have to be attentive to the tilt on the disk. Work towards looking slightly away from the heli instead of staring directly at the disk. The disk is the thing doing all the flying; the rest is a support pakage for the disk. Fly the disk. The cyclic input to correct the disk when making rudder turns is small so don't overcorrect. The tilt of the disk needs to be coordinated with the heading of the heli, of course, so if you're going to rudder to the left 90 deg, for example, don't just push the nose down and roll right. The disk tilt should ease around to being away from you (to the heli's right) as the nose comes around to the left. I'm sure my 2 cents have expired by now. :)

[matchless]

I think you should burn lots of packs and crash a lot:tongue

[Jim T]

My 2 cents... work on a really solid hover. To do that, be very attentive to the rotor disk. Anticipate actions. For example, assume a pretty near perfect setup on the heli. Hovering nose-out you see a bit of right tilt on the rotor disk, to hold position over the ground. Now rudder 90 deg to the right. Anticipate what's going to happen. As you make this turn, what was a right tilt on the disk becomes a nose down tilt. To see why that is, stick a pencil through a little piece of paper. Put a mark on the paper indicating the nose. The paper is the rotor disk. Rotate the paper so the mark (nose) is pointing out. Tilt the pencil to the right as you would with the heli to compensate for drift.. Now, twist the pencil 90 deg clockwise without changing the tilt of the pencil, so that the mark is now pointed to your right. Notice that the mark is now low. What was a right tilt is translated into a nose down tilt due to the rotation on the vertical axis. So, as you rudder to the right you will also need just a little smidge of back elevator and a little right cyclic to maintain the right tilt relative to the heli. Otherwise, if you do nothing but rudder to the right the heli will start moving to the right because of nose-down and drifting to the left because of loss of right tilt.

Another. Start with the "pencil heli" pointed nose-out, right tilt. Now turn it all the way around. Hold the right tilt on the pencil, because unless you mess with the cyclic the vertical and longitudinal axiis will not move. After turning the pencil heli around the tilt is then to the left side of the heli, backwards from what it should be.

Another. Starting with nose-out, rudder the pencil heli 90 deg to the left. Now, the heli is nose up and no lateral tilt. So, backwards it goes and drifting to its left.

Keep in mind that the flybar is a gyroscope and it's going to try to keep the rotor disk tilted in whatever way so long as there's no change in cyclic. The heli rotates under that disk when you make a rudder turn leaving the tilt as it was, which isn't what it should be for the new heading. IN other words, if you're facing north in a nose-out hover the rotor disk will be tilted to the east to stay in place. If you swing the nose around to the west the tilt of the rotor is still towards the east, which is now behind the heli instead of toward its right.

Making rudder turns in a hover is aggrivating because of this need to repair the tilt on the disk, so that makes it a good thing to practice. Of course, you have to be attentive to the tilt on the disk. Work towards looking slightly away from the heli instead of staring directly at the disk. The disk is the thing doing all the flying; the rest is a support pakage for the disk. Fly the disk. The cyclic input to correct the disk when making rudder turns is small so don't overcorrect. The tilt of the disk needs to be coordinated with the heading of the heli, of course, so if you're going to rudder to the left 90 deg, for example, don't just push the nose down and roll right. The disk tilt should ease around to being away from you (to the heli's right) as the nose comes around to the left. I'm sure my 2 cents have expired by now. :)

That was a great 2 cents worth.:thumbup: And something I've never really thought much about...............until now. I'm more interested in precision type flying than 3d so this will really help. Thanks for posting.

Jim

[matlok]

Thanks Vera, that was exactly the kind of thing I was looking for! Keep the info coming guys...

I think you should burn lots of packs and crash a lot:tongue

Yea thank you too, Jeremy. ;)

[matchless]

Yea thank you too, Jeremy. ;)


You know I'm always willin ta help ya buddy!