RADIO CONTROL HELICOPTERS
Dan Williams — 27 Treeline Dr., Liverpool, NY 13090; E-mail: [email protected]
AS I'M WRITING this, the flying season is just getting underway in upstate New York. It's ironic that when this is published, the flying season will be winding down up here in the North. It is the envy of us Northerners that those living in southern areas of the country can enjoy an extended flying season. Up here, we have to pack in all of our flying in five or six months.
That's okay; we get to spend long months going through our helicopters doing maintenance. It's not much of a trade-off, but we live with it. The rain is curtailing the flying right now. I promised a review of the FMA Direct Co-Pilot, but with the weather and my schedule, I've had to put it off until next month.
Helicopters in fixed-wing model clubs
A topic that has been discussed many times in many different helicopter columns is flying helicopters in traditionally fixed-wing model clubs. You may have read the war stories of getting the cold shoulder (the best case) to outright being told not to bring a helicopter to the field again (the worst case). There are individuals who will not tolerate helicopters flying at their clubs, no matter what arrangements or accommodations can be made. That will never change.
However, I've had the privilege of a positive experience with my fixed-wing club, and I've had the pleasure of visiting several other clubs in my travels that have made provisions for helicopters at their fields.
My fixed-wing club, the Syracuse Thunderbirds Aero Radio Society, watched me struggle from the beginning, taming the beast of the model helicopter. I discussed my intentions with the safety officer before I even began the adventure, and that was my first step to success.
I went off by myself in a corner of the field and burned many gallons just hovering. Once I was into forward flight, I made several trials flying at the same time as the fixed-wing pilots, following the flight pattern of the day. It worked out well. It doesn't seem to bother anybody to fly with me as long as I'm following the basic flight pattern. However, as I approached the 3-D phase of flying, I waited until there was a break in activities before flying my helicopter. I am courteous of their flying, and they accommodate me.
I've come upon several clubs that have fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters working together. One is the Bartow County Model Aviation Club, which flies at a field outside metropolitan Atlanta in Georgia. It has gone to the extent of providing a separate flightline and pit arrangements for helicopters and an area where fixed-wing models and helicopters practice hovering and flying 3-D. The two flightlines are perpendicular to each other and there is the potential of crossing over into each other's flight pattern, but the members have worked it out well. They enjoy each other's company. There are plans to completely separate the flight patterns in the future, providing exclusive flying areas for each discipline.
Another club in the Atlanta area — the Cobb County RC Modelers — has provisions for fixed wing and rotary. This is where Atlanta Braves catcher Javy Lopez flies Radio Control Aerobatics. They mix it up successfully. So you see, it can be done. Everybody flying model helicopters knows full well how difficult it is to get through the hovering phase. New pilots flying fixed-wing models aren't faced with the daunting task of hovering right off the bat. Some of the fliers who are transitioning into flying helicopters figure out quickly that they can go into forward flight right away, fly the model like an airplane, and avoid hovering altogether.
Learning nose-in hovering
I'm going to discuss one of the more difficult aspects of hovering: "nose-in" hovering. I'll share my insight into various techniques of learning it. However, before you're ready to learn this, you should be comfortable with hovering the helicopter facing "side on" toward you, with the model facing to the left and to the right.
From a tail-in attitude, rotate the helicopter 90° to the left or right. Some pilots will actually turn their bodies in that direction to help orient the transmitter to the way the helicopter is hovering. I think of myself "in the cockpit." Use whatever works for you and allows you to build up the instincts. Practice both ways.
I can't stress enough practicing the various hovering attitudes before progressing to the next phase. Burn that fuel!
Crutch techniques to build instincts
Before I get started, I'll share a learning crutch with you. Using this technique will allow you to develop the instincts necessary to successfully accomplish learning nose-in hovering. the airplane pilots use a similar method in their flight schools when they are teaching you about flying toward yourself.
When the airplane is flying at you, to level the wings, correct by pushing the right stick in the direction of the low wing. From the airplane frame of view, it will raise that wing back toward level. I'm going to use a similar technique.
For nose-in hovering, to stop the helicopter from drifting side to side, push the right stick in the direction of the drift. That will stop it. From the pilot's standpoint, if the helicopter is drifting to the right, push the right stick (cyclic stick) to the right. It will stop the drift in that direction. You are effectively "raising the low wing" in airplane terms. The same goes with a left drift; applying left cyclic (right stick to the left) will correct it.
The same idea goes for forward and backward drifting. If the helicopter drifts away from you (backward), push the cyclic stick (right stick) away from you. If it's coming at you, pull the right stick toward you.
This may seem like cheating and that you'll be stuck with this as a crutch forever, but that's not true. You have to build up the instincts. Once you begin to react automatically, you'll find that you don't even think of the trick anymore.
I've got another crutch for you. It is for tail movement, or yaw, while hovering nose in. Think about what you're doing with normal tail-in hovering; you're steering the helicopter's nose in the direction you need to keep the nose where it belongs. If the nose drifts to the left, push the left stick to the right to bring the nose to the right again, and vice versa.
With that in mind, think about this: you're steering the nose that is pointing away from you. Let's apply the same thing to nose-in hovering. We will be steering what is pointing away, and in this case it's the tail.
For moving the tail to the right, push the left (rudder) stick to the right. To move the tail to the left, move the rudder stick to the left. As you progress into more difficult maneuvers (upright), remember that you steer whatever is pointing away from you, just like the nose is when hovering normally. This really helps when learning backward flight.
Practicing nose-in hovering — methods
A simulator is highly recommended as a start. Once you're comfortable with the simulator, put that training gear back on the helicopter. Before you start, think about what you're going to do if things start to go wrong. You already know how to hover normally with the tail in toward you, so you want to get the helicopter back to a tail-in hover. That's how you "bail out." Rotate the helicopter back to tail in if you get messed up.
Think that through a few times before beginning. Remember, I also recommend that you are able to hover with the helicopter facing left and right — a side-on hover. That way it's only a small jump to nose-in attitude.
You can start the nose-in hover practice in one of several ways:
- The first way (how I learned): slow your approach to yourself, up high, with the helicopter nose facing you. Work the attitude as much as you can and bail out by rotating the helicopter back to a tail-in hover or pushing the helicopter back into forward flight. I don't recommend this for someone who is still in the hovering stages because they don't know forward flight yet.
- The second way: hover the model with the normal tail-in attitude, close to the ground. Rotate the helicopter until the nose is facing you. Try to hold the nose-in attitude as long as possible. Some drifting around is allowed — it's just like learning to hover again. If you have to bail, turn the helicopter around until the tail is facing you. Gather your wits and try again. Perseverance will pay off; keep trying. Make sure there is plenty of distance between you and the helicopter while trying this, or whenever it is hovering. If it drifts at you, you want the room to spare! Only practice for a couple of minutes at a time, then go back to the normal tail-in hover. This is important. You will get so caught up in nose-in hovering that if you don't give yourself a break, you will have trouble hovering normally again. Switch around, going back and forth between nose in and tail in.
- The third way: start with the helicopter on the ground, facing you. Slowly bring it off of the ground, keeping the drift to a minimum as you get it up into a hover. It's like learning to hover normally again. Hold the helicopter in a hover facing you for as long as you can. If you need to, set it back down and gather your nerves again. I was never comfortable learning or teaching this way because it can be overwhelming when you're trying to keep from tipping the model over. However, try either method and use whichever gets you to success.
For next month I'm putting together a list of helicopters, radios, and gyros to help the new helicopter pilot get started. I will also have the review of the FMA Direct Co-Pilot.
My policy is to let manufacturers see my reviews before they're published so they have the opportunity to correct anything with which I find a problem. This is the only way to be fair to them and to the readers. I know FMA Direct was expecting a review this month, so my sincere apologies go out to that company.
That's it for this month. Success is found at the bottom of each gallon of fuel burned. You've got to burn it to learn it! MA
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
