Ramblings from the Hangar - Forward Flight in Helis

Hi Guys

some nice articles posted below on hovering and nose in hovering. Once youve got this right its on to the fun stuff. Forward flight.

Now most of you are probably already screaming at the thought of taking your pride and joy and pushing it into the wild blue yonder. but its not that bad...and dare i say it? better than sex! hehehe(hope my wife doesnt read this)

if youre familiar with aircraft youll be pleased to know that forward flight in helis is very similar.

ok. so youve got your heli hovering in front of you at eye level tail facing towards you. you want to start foward flight.(at this point im assuming youve completed the previous lesson on nose in)

slowly swing the nose to the left(left rudder) and push forward GENTLY on the elevator stick.this will start moving the heli off to the left slowly. if it starts moving too fast pull back gently on the elevator stick. try to keep constantly moving forward though. the minute you stop and go back to hover the heli will tend to want to fly back towards you backwards.

ok so keeping the heli moving forward very slowly. once its about 20 feet awy from you slow swing the nose to the right(right rudder) until its perpendicular with you. the heli should now be slowly moving forward past you. when its moved past you and is about 20 feet away. slow swing the nose to the left again(again making sure that its always moving slightly forward) and start on the return trip flying past yourself again. basically you are flying up and down very slowly doing a turn at each end. on the left its a right hand turn. on the right its a left hand turn. this teaches you not to get too used to a specific type of turn.

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO KEEP IN MIND. keep moving forward. the tendency to pull back on the stick in a turn(like an aircraft) is strong. but be careful of it. too much up elevator and it will start moving backwards and then things go pear shaped. if this happens. stop. put the heli back into a hover. tail facing you. bring it back towards you slowly. calm down and try again.

Aileron(cyclic) does not really play a large part in these slow circles and movement. only when you start moving forward faster and faster will you bank with aileron, give up cyclic to lift the nose. BUT you still have to swing the tail round to turn it. otherwise you will just end up flying backwards at a bank...not a good recipe.

ok so to sum up. Grab your balls in your hand. get off the ground. start moving forward. doing little circles at each end of a flight path. as you get more and more confident make the circles bigger and bigger. and move faster. the feel for aileron and elevator cyclic will automatically come to you.

remember. if you get into kak. just return to hover. if you panic slam open the throttle and climb. itll give you precious seconds to think. careful not to climb too much as the heli will go out of site.

obviously dont slam the throttleopen if you are sideways heading towards the ground. level the rotors first.