RC HELICOPTERS 2013/07 — An overview of Dave Scott’s new book
by Mark Fadely [email protected]
Hello! I am happy to see you perusing the helicopter area this month. If you are a first-time visitor or are considering becoming a helicopter pilot, this will interest you.
I recently got my hands on a useful training aid for our hobby: Dave Scott’s Heli Flight Training manual. This is an excellent resource that will help any pilot, regardless of skill level.
Dave Scott is well known for his hands-on 1st U.S. R/C Flight School in Wisconsin. Hundreds of RC pilots have benefited from his systematic approach to RC training. Dave’s teaching experience is now compiled in his new book about helicopters.
The Heli Flight Training manual is more than a good source of information. It is a well-thought-out, organized, step-by-step approach to learning how to pilot a heli. The book is broken into easily understood chapters that progress logically. The three main sections include these subsections:
Section I
- Ground School
- Hover Ground School
- Maneuvering Ground School
Section II
- Sim Training
- Real-World First Flights
Section III
- Aerobatics
- Intermediate Aerobatics
Dave believes in using simulators — and why not? Simulators are used in all full-scale aviation training today. The difference in his simulator work is that exercises and goals are planned in a methodical sequence to achieve desired results.
There are no sessions in which pilots aimlessly fly around, crash, and then hit the reset button. This book teaches you the right way to learn so that when you are flying a real model heli, you will be safe and confident in your abilities.
Excerpt (page 2):
Much of the challenge flying helicopters stems from the fact that pilots often have to manipulate all four controls at the same time (compared to the average airplane pilot who uses only two controls most of the time). Fortunately, training on a simulator allows a heli pilot to learn the controls independently before putting them all together. Plus, modern flight simulators are so realistic that the skills developed on the sim translate directly to the real world, so whether flying in a sim or the real world, the approaches are the same.
The pages detail a crawl/walk/run plan for success. As long as a pilot can stay disciplined and follow the progressive teaching steps, he or she will become a competent RC heli pilot.
Advanced maneuvers such as autorotations are covered in Dave’s book. Plenty of diagrams show the position of the heli in relation to the correct position of the transmitter stick, which helps reinforce when and how to control the machine.
I would recommend this book, and you might consider signing up for a real-world visit to the flight school. Training classes last four or five days, and graduates have positive testimonials that you can see online.
Thanks for stopping by — I hope many of you will find this information useful.
SOURCES
- 1st U.S. R/C Flight School — (715) 853-1003 — www.rcflightschool.com
- Heli Flight Training — www.rcflightschool.com/Heli_Manual.asp
- International Radio Controlled Helicopter Association — www.ircha.org
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
