If you are thinking of learning to fly a helicopter, it is probably
one of the most exciting and rewarding challenges you will face.
Some people have compared flying a helicopter to rubbing your
stomach and patting your head at the same time. If only it were that
easy!
When I first began flying helicopters I was sometimes overwhelmed
with the amount of workload needed to maintain control of a helicopter
during a hover. It was very difficult to keep the helicopter over a
spot at a constant altitude while talking on the radio and maintaining
my situational awareness. I remember having a death grip on the
controls and sweating like pig.
I soon got the hang of the helicopter and found a few things that
helped me overcome some of the difficulties of controlling a helicopter
during a hover.
1. Try and relax your grip on the controls, they are very sensitive and only require small inputs.
2. Choose a fixed object about 100ft-200ft in the distance to
look at, like a tree or structure and focus on that. If you look too
close or through the chin bubble your movements will appear larger and
cause you to over correct.
3. Don't let your instructor push you too hard, take a break now
and then. It can take between five and ten hours for students to learn
to hover without assistance from an instructor.
4. Wear comfortable cloths and shoes.
5. Take your time and don't let anyone rush you. 6. Rest your
right arm on your right leg while holding the cyclic. This acts as a
pivot point so you can move the cyclic with your fingers and wrist.
There are four controls we use to fly a helicopter.
1. Cyclic
The cyclic is a stick located between the pilots legs and is used
to distribute rotor thrust which gives us our directional control. The
helicopter will move in the direction that the cyclic is placed.
2. Collective
The collective is a lever located on the floor to the left of the pilot
and is used to increase and decrease rotor thrust. As the collective is
raised the pitch of all the main rotor blades increases together
causing the helicopter to lift.
3. Yaw Pedals
The yaw pedals, sometimes called anti torque pedals, are used to
maintain heading during the hover and keep the helicopter in trim
during forward flight. They are used with the pilot's feet and control
the pitch of the tail rotor blades. Push the right pedal and the
helicopter will rotate to the right and rotate left if you push left
pedal.
4. Throttle
The throttle is located on the end of the collective and rotates like a
motorcycle throttle, except that it rotates in the opposite direction.
This is used to maintain the engine and rotor rpm. As the collective is
increased the rpm will droop low due to more drag on the main rotor,
requiring the pilot to roll on throttle to maintain rpm. As the
collective is decreased the rpm will increase due to less drag on the
main rotor requiring the pilot to roll off throttle to maintain rpm.
Think before you move the throttle. It only needs small movements
and if you roll throttle down too much the rotor rpm will decrease
rapidly resulting in the rotor blades folding upward to the point where
rotor rpm is unrecoverable.
