Smooth, flowing flights

[R6 Pilot]

Any pointers on how to make my flights more fluid? Typically I try a move, go back to center, practice something else, go back to center, etc. It's like my brain needs a rest in between maneuvers. I know I probably just need more practice but what do you guys/gals do? You have a flight planned out? Or just wing it? On the sim I can link a few maneuvers but not in real life. Thanks Dave

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[Steve Graham]

You're thinking of flying as a series of moves. Try to see it as both individual maneuvers and a series of flight paths. Many tricks have the heli sort of stationary such as flips and rolls. Other maneuvers actually happen on a line or flight path. These lines can be a combination of straight lines on a variety of vectors, for example horizontal, vertical, 45 degrees as well as parallel and perpendicular to the flight line. These flight paths can also be comprised of curves with varying radii such as horizontal circuits (turns) and vertical such as part and full loops. A balanced flight should be a combination of fixed maneuvers as well as a nice variety of these moving flight paths. It should have a certain symmetry with the heli at times performing center, left, right, close in, further out as well as high and low maneuvers. A maneuver can be as simple as a horizontal line (flight path) or as complex as you can imagine. I call compound maneuvers those which superimpose one trick on top of another such as a looping flight path that contains piro-flips.

As you fly you should seek to connect maneuvers and lines into interesting forms that occupy the entire aerobatic box. Watch the experts and note how they accomplish this. You may not be able to execute the more advanced maneuvers they do like the aforementioned piro flipping loops you may very well be comfortable performing or mastering a loop with 180 degree piros at the top and bottom.

As you begin to master basic maneuvers begin to see if you can place them on flight lines. An aileron roll is not mastered until it can be flown on vertical and horizontal lines as well as on arcs like loops and circuits.

The other thing you should notice is how advanced pilots will transition from one maneuver to another. For example a funnel that transitions into a sideways loop or a traveling flip that transitions into a traveling roll. Transitions can be sudden and abrupt like a wall to a stop from high speed or flowing like the mobius many of us practice. Transitions really are the heart of choreography that turns our flying from a ballerina practicing points into a full dance with context defining a variety of energy levels and emotion. As silly as it sounds watching ballet, dance, figure skating, artistic gymnastics etc can be quite helpful in seeing ways individual movements can be turned into routines.

This leads into the discussion of music. Since flying aerobatics is in essence aerial ballet it is lacking without music to set the beat and rhythm to which a pilot flies a nice routine. If you're not already you should be practicing to music in order to try and define the style that will best suit you.

The best pilots have spent many hours practicing all variations of a maneuver so that they can effortlessly transition in any way their fancy strikes.

Your questions about ways to improve your "flow" are an important step to becoming the pilot you want to be.

[R6 Pilot]

Thanks Steve. Very good info. Iwas quite frustrated when i posted this. I think you hit the nail on the head regarding mastering a maneuver. While I have most of the basic maneuvers down (ff, backward flight, inverted backwards and inverted forwards) I have not mastered them. I have almost mastered them on sim but not IRL. When actually flying, I need time to think about what I'm doing next and/or rest the brain in between maneuvers. That's my problem and I why I was so frustrated when I made this post. I had spent the last week hitting the sim hard and fully expected to fly like a pro (LOL) when I took the Protos out. Instead, I was a bundle of nerves. Although there have been flights that my confidence is high and the flights are dialed in. This hobby is strange in that way, some days are good, others are not as good.
So, with that in mind, I'll do more work on the sim with "mastering" orientations as well as spend more time on transitions. Now that I have my foundation built regarding the basics, transitions are even more important. I think music is a good idea as well, it might help relax and give me a tempo while flying.
Fly safe, Dave


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[Steve Graham]

This hobby is like that Dave. By accepting that there will be peaks, valleys and plateaus in your progress you will insulate yourself from too much frustration, but we all struggle at times. As much as I preach working both left and right rudder just the other night I found myself with the rather painful realization that unconsciously I do a lot more left than right and my right shows it I've often found a particular movement that has been escaping me no matter how much I practice will come to after a few days off. I think this is the time the brain needs occasionally to process new things.


We all have different rates of progress so your competition is only with your past self.

I haven't found any research to back up my theory but I believe, for me anyway, music can occupy a very small amount of mental bandwidth that often prevents me from overthinking and second guessing my instinctual stick movements. Of course I've also flown into the ground many times while trying to hit specific beats

[Wargamer]

Something else that can help is to spend some of your IRL flying with a smaller heli that you aren't worried about crashing. I find this helps me to relax quite a bit. Since you have a Nano CPS, you might try that, although I've found its 3d performance to be lacking. The K110 is BL and nearly indestructible in a field, so it's become my goto small heli.

[Waxxingibbous]

Sim hours will fix that, to link maneuvers you need intimate knowledge of your bird capabilities and flight characterisitcs. One thing I have started doing in the sim and real flight is pitch pumping right after the maneuver while returning to center. This will give you a starting sense of how to maintain altitude after doing a maneuver that more than likely will cause you to lose altitude. 2 pumps after every maneuver has helped me to memorize the falling weight based on the maneuver and I'm able to hit the floating pitch easier,faster resulting in a cleaner transition

[Ah Clem]

One other thing that helps is to keep the speed constant (whether forward, backward, etc.).

This involves feathering the throttle/collective carefully, and helps keep things flowing smooth and easy.

A good, precise helicopter, a good setup, and a good radio does not hurt either.

[R6 Pilot]

Thanks guys, good info. I've been focusing on hitting the sim pretty hard. Have been working on transitions and I'm starting to link things together a bit. It's not perfect by any means but it is progress. Also watching a lot of videos , I like seeing others styles and routines. I have discovered that just because I can do most orientations, doesn't mean I'm proficient at them. I try to mix up orientations, ie inverted tail first forward flight and piro to inverted nose first forward flight while doing circles. Or right side up figure 8s and transition to inverted. I just need to burn in that muscle memory.

Wargamer, I do have the K110. I love that thing! Flies amazing and can take serious hits. Current waiting on back ordered parts....that's the worst issue with the k110.

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[Ah Clem]

Shot from a drone two years ago (needs to be watched full screen and in high def):

Compas 6HV U in Flight as Viewed by FPV (3 min 3 sec)

Trying to get one maneuver to flow smoothly into another.

(Thank you to Toby Howard for shooting the video).

[R6 Pilot]

Originally Posted by Ah Clem

Shot from a drone two years ago (needs to be watched full screen and in high def):

Compas 6HV U in Flight as Viewed by FPV - YouTube

Trying to get one maneuver to flow smoothly into another.

(Thank you to Toby Howard for shooting the video).

Nicely done Ah Clem. Smooth and big. I like what looks like a close call between the quad and Compass! I'll play it again later on the big screen at home. Now I'm gonna check out your other vids.

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[Ah Clem]

Thank you, sir!

It helps to have an outstanding helicopter and a very precise radio.

Same helicopter, better blades, better (more precise/higher resolution) radio;

6HV U PV 20160225B (6 min 9 sec)

[Ah Clem]

Steve O'Connor at very low RPM-slow and smoooooooth!

HF 2016 Steve O Protos 700 (8 min 3 sec)

[Kap'n Krunch]

Basically the more orientations you learn paractice and fly the more you'll start moving/flying the heli around hovering M, hovering top hat, heading hold circuits(at all 12 positions around a clock up right and inverted) loops, circles, figure 8s, rolling circuits, traveling flips, snake, rolling flips, piro half-star, falling and climbing piroflips, piro flipping circuits, and the list goes on also practicing at different altitudes from eye level to 15, 30 60 100 feet (what ever you come up with) to me it looks all bit different depending on height... every time I get stuck or feeling stagnated and I'm not progressing I go back to basics and fly and practice those ... flying lower HS and practice keeping everything smooth has helped me... also keep it slow and controlled on the sim its good practice (not flying the heli like a rocket) this will help transfer it into IRL for me it took around year four to be able to do full on flights back to back to back and flight times now go so fast I'm going to nitro so I'm hoping for 10++ minute flight times flying smooth

also having a heli set up matching your skill level goes a long way and has taking me a few years to figure out what that even translates too and I'm sure it will continue to evolve where I'm at now is setting up a under powered heli where Jamming of the sticks will cause HS speed degradation so you have to work for your moves

Also YouTube is great turn the playback speed way down and break down flights down incrementally move by move and practice what you can out of them what also looks immposiable starts to look doable after time and practice, but as far as consistency and precision is a whole other factor