How to Fly Helicopters

PART I: PROFILE
Important suggestions in order to learn to fly model helicopters fast, safe and without crashing every week:

1. Invite an experienced flyer to help you: Setting up a helicopter for the first time is not very easy. It is very unlikely that you will setup the helicopter correctly by yourself. A helicopter that has been setup properly flies much better and is more predictable! So it?s necessary for you to have an experienced flyer help you. He may give you additional hints and tips on learning and he may point you at certain mistakes you make, which may be very helpful.
2. Take small steps: Always take very small steps on the learning curve. If you take a big step, you may succeed, or you may crash. If you crash, you may be de-motivated, it will cost you money, it will make you less confident, you are grounded for some time and the worst it is dangero! Make sure that you learn a step thoroughly and in all directions before you take the next step. In the end you will learn faster if you take small steps because you know the basics well and you will fly instead of repair.
3. Don't skip steps: There are of course numero ways to learn to fly a remotely controlled helicopter. However, if you follow the steps listed below, you will learn fast and with a minimum chance of crashing. The steps are chosen such that you always have learned the necessary steps before taking a new step.
4. e a proper RC Helicopter fly simulator: Having a proper simulator, which can be controlled by your Tx ( transmitter is necessary). It allows you to get acquainted to controlling an R/C helicopter and learn the needed reflexes.

PART II: FUNCATION

1) Learn about the basic theory of helicopter aerodynamics. This will help you to understand what is going on. Your instructor can learn about the controls and their interactions and the influence of wind on the model etc. Learn about when a helicopter stalls etc, this is very different from a plane!
2) Have your helicopter checked over thoroughly by your instructor for safety.
3) use your simulator to train your reflexes required for hovering the helicopter.
4) Setup a buddy lead between your TX and the TX of the instructor and make sure that both transmitters are setup properly. Here you can see the learning process on the buddy lead in action. Both transmitters are connected, and the instructor is ready to take over at any time.
5) Learn about the safety procedures on RC helicopter fly and the specific safety procedures at the field you are going to fly.
6) Make sure that you have your training gear connected properly.

PART III: PRACTICE & PROGRESS

Make sure you practice until you are confident in a step before you move on to the next step.
Make sure that you have your training gear connected properly.
Make sure that your instructorknows when you get in to trouble.

Learning Cyclic Control:
Step1) Your instructor will check the helicopter controls, he will spool it up and check the controls with a spooled up helicopter. If all is well, he will test fly the helicopter to ensure that everything is operating as expected. Yes, this is thrilling; you have Just witnessed your helicopter actually fly.

Step 2) Your instructor will demonstrate what a sliding helicopter is. using your training gear it will be possible to slowly land the helicopter while it still has significant forward, backward or sideways speed.

Step 3) Position the helicopter with the nose in the wind. You should stand 5m away behind the helicopter, and 1m to the left of it. Rehearse in your mind what you are going to do (try to make the helicopter stay put at one position). Rehearse what the controls and their interactions are going to be.

Step 4) Now you are in control of the cyclic and your instructor will lift the helicopter to a save height of 0.1m. Exercise only very small control inputs. While trying to make the helicopter stay put, the landing gear will now and then touch the ground, but this will be no problem. Once you can control the helicopter so it stays in one place, it will no longer touch the ground. Your instructor will lift the helicopter to a height of 1m. This will need a bit of time to get used to. Yes, you are flying a helicopter!

Step 5) Practice to move the helicopter sideways 1m, stop in a hover, and come back again. Practice this in both directions. You will develop proper feel for controlling the cyclic.

Step 6) Practice to move the helicopter forwards 1m, stop in a hover, and come back again.
Then, you mastered the basic controls on the right stick.

Learning Collective and Rudder Control:

Step 1) Position the helicopter with the nose in the wind. You should stand 5m away behind the helicopter, and 1m to the left of it. Rehearse in your mind what you are going to do (try to gently lift the helicopter 10cm of the ground and put it down again). Rehearse what the controls and their interactions are going to be. Remember that you mt keep calm when you slam down the helicopter and donot slam it down in a hurry.

Step 2) Lift the helicopter slowly of the ground up to 10cm. Hold the pitch control for a couple of seconds. Decrease pitch slowly and set it down again. You will get confident in your instructor in keeping the helicopter at one spot. Try to be very precise on the stick so that you do not touch the rudder. The helicopter will not stay at one height due to the wind effects.

Step 3) Lift the helicopter slowly to an height of 1m. Get comfortable with this height, and practice to set it down slowly and gently. Try to learn to keep the helicopter at a constant height of 1m. If you feel uncomfortable landing the helicopter, let the instructor land the helicopter until you are ready for it.

Step 4) Lift the helicopter to a height of 1m. Keep it steady. Now slowly rotate the nose of the helicopter left, back again, right, and back again. The maximum rotation is about 20 degrees. Get comfortable in controlling the rudder.

Step 5) Lift the helicopter slowly to an height of 1m. How does a controlled ascent to 2m, back to 1m etc? Practice to get a very controlled height.

Step 6) Lift the helicopter to a height of 1m. Your instructor will move the helicopter sideways, forwards and backwards (1m). Try to keep the helicopter at a constant height of 1m.

Step 7) Same as above, now the instructor moves the helicopter in all directions up to a distance of 5m.
After these steps, you mastered the basic control of the pitch/throttle and the rudder.

Learning to Control Both Sticks:
Step 1) Position the helicopter with the nose in the wind. You should stand 5m away behind the helicopter, and 1m to the left of it. Rehearse in your mind what you are going to do (try to make the helicopter stay at a minimal height of 1m). Rehearse what the controls and their interactions are going to be.

Step 2) Be prepared for the helicopter to drift to the left (with a right hand rotating main rotor). It will do that! Promptly lift the helicopter to a height of 1m. Don't try to control the cyclic until it is of the ground! Don't hover below 1m, make sure that the liftoff is swiftly. Catch the left drift of the helicopter. Practice until the helicopter stays put at one place and you are in full control.

Step 3) Practice a gentle decent from 1m and a gentle touch down. Practice this until you can land the helicopter with little to no sideways movement and a gentle descent. From here on, you always try to land the helicopter as if there is no training gear attached (gently with no sideways movement).

Step 4) Practice to move the helicopter sideways 1m, stop in a hover, and come back again. Practice this in both directions. Take care of the control interaction, be aware of the wind effects. You will develop proper feel for controlling the cyclic and the pitch combination. Extend this slowly to a sideways movement of 5m.

Step 5) Practice to move the helicopter forwards 1m, stop in a hover, and come back again. Extend this slowly to a forward and backward movement of 5m. Take care of the control interaction; be aware of the wind effects. Practice this until you can make forward, backward and sideways movement at a constant height.

Step 6) Lift the helicopter to a height of 1m. Keep it steady. Now slowly rotate the nose of the helicopter left, back again, right, and back again. The maximum rotation is about 20 degrees. Get comfortable in controlling the rudder and keeping the helicopter at one spot with a constant altitude.
After finished these steps, you have managed the first hovering steps.

The Hovering trail like "M":
Step 1) Position the helicopter with the nose in the wind. You should stand 5m away behind the helicopter, and 1m to the left of it. Rehearse in your mind what you are going to do (try diagonal movements and finally make the "M" maneuver at a constant height of 1m). Rehearse what the controls and their interactions are going to be.

Step 2) Bring the helicopter in a stable hover. Move the helicopter 5m to the right of you and make it stop. From this point, move the helicopter 5 m forwards and make it stop. You are looking at the helicopter with a familiar angle, Just a bit further away. Make sure you can hold it there in a stable hover.

Step 3) Diagonally move the helicopter backwards and to the left until it is again in front of you (5m in front of you, 1m to the right). Practice this triangle until you feel comfortable.

Step 4) Now we are going to practice the left-hand side. Again, start in front of you. Move the helicopter 5m to the left and make it stop (near left corner). Move the helicopter 5m forward and get it in a stable hover. Diagonally move the helicopter backwards and to the right until it is again in front of you (5m in front of you, 1m to the right). Practice this triangle until you feel comfortable.

Step 5) Now repeat the steps above, but this time you extend the diagonal sections. So you are going to move the helicopter diagonally from the far right corner directly to the near left corner. From here move the helicopter to the far left corner, and then diagonally to the near right corner. From here to the far right corner etc. Always hover at the corners first so that errors do not get accumulated.

Step 6) Now we are going to practice the triangle in the other direction. Start with the helicopter in front of you move diagonally to the far right corner, back again to the near right corner and back again in front of you. Also practice this on the left hand side, with the diagonal movement away from you to the far left corner.

Step 7) Extend the diagonal movements. Start in front of you, move the helicopter to the near right corner, from here move the helicopter to the far left corner and back to the near left corner. From there move it in one diagonal to the far right corner and back to the near right corner.