How do I fly the Helicopter

[Kelburn]

Can anybody tell me/ help/ give a turtorial

[ZK-Brock]

There was a thread a few months back where Trolly asked the same Question, have a snoop round the forums.

[ardypilot]

This is the thread Brock was mentioning: http://z11.invisionfree.com/nzff/index. ... topic=1663

Also, if you don't mind a lot of reading, visit www.hovercontrol.com (very detailed tutorials).

In the end it takes practice, practice, practice! I'm still no where near as good at flying helis than I am at fixed wing, but it sure is a lot of fun learning

[Timmo]

Its a pretty dry topic, but learning about the fundamental aerodynamics of Helicopter flight will help you fly and understand the relationship between the various inputs.

[Jimmy]

Do you have a rudder twist on your joystick kelburn? Or rudder pedals, useing the keyboard for rudder control woudl make heli flying very challenging, as soon as I used rudder when playing aorund with heliciopters it was alot easier.

As Trolly said, practice, one day youl load up a choper and find you can fly it easy

[Timmo]

As an aside, ive done a little over an hour in real helos (about 0.4? in an R22, about 1.2 or so in a S300)....the latest time i went i could hold a hover and hover taxi reasonably well...im sure that flying in FSX has helped me in this regard..

I cant stress good frame rates enough though.....you need to keep on top of the movement of the helo (especially in a hover) and to do this you need to see what is happening outside and correct as fast as possible...once you get into 'the swings' it can be hard for a novice to input the correct controls to get it back.

If you do get out of shape, ive found it easier (when trying to help other people fly) to
1) Get forward speed by adopting a nose down attitude- This will make the A/c 'weather c**k' into the airflow and make things a lot more stable.

2) Once you have some forward speed, sort out the Yaw and the roll

3) Get to straight and level

4) pull gently back to reduce speed (keep Roll and Yaw in check with the joystick and pedals respectively)

5) As forward speed reduces controls will become a lot more sensitive....this is where the practice comes in.

I would suggest trying to get things sorted in this order: Pitch, roll, Yaw and then power (up and down) In other words, get in a zero speed attitude with no roll (you may be spinning in circles but as long as you are spinning in 'flat' circles dont worry) then counter with yaw to stop spinning (you may still be going up or down at this stage) and then finally try to set power to stop going up or down

In reality everything is linked so if you touch the power, your yaw inputs will change and so too will your roll inputs...

hehe good luck

[Charl]

I cant stress good frame rates enough though.....you need to keep on top of the movement of the helo

Absolutely - I battled with learning rotary wing on a rig that was giving sporadically 12-15 fps and had meself just about in tears.
It can't be done, so turn stuff down until you see 20fps and you'll see how much easier it gets.
"Easier" is a relative term.
cbris had a splendid little jingle for the skill, it involved sitting on a beach ball and juggling stuff, wish I'd written it down.

[Bandit]

All the above is good advice.

For anyone else looking at joining the Rotor Ranks check out this tutorial from AVSIM as well.
http://www.avsim.com/pages/0604/heli/helitutorial.htm.

Practice, Practice, Practice