Hovering: A few tips.

[Flamin_Squirrel]

I was fortunate enough to have two 30 min lessons in an R22 this week; this was my first RW rotary wing flying experience. I found hovering a little tricky the first time so I looked for some tips and found the following: http://philip.greenspun.com/flying/teaching-hovering

 

When I went up for the second 30 mins I did much better. The important things in the article that I find helpful were:

 

1) don't worry too much about the collective.

2) look to the distance, learn what the hover attitude looks like and try to maintain it religiously. It's important to maintain the picture within a degree or two.

3) don't hold the cyclic in a given direction when making a correction. Nudge it in the required direction then neutralise. Nudge again if correction wasn't sufficient.

 

I hope this helps others as it did me; the DCS Huey now seems easy!

[TimeKilla]

Thanks will try the nudging, am not bad at hovering within ground affect outside that it gets more and more tricky. :)

[NoJoe]

Wow, that's a great article! As a fixed-wing flight instructor myself it's always interesting to read things like that. And definitely helped my in-sim Huey flying.

 

Gotta go take a 30 minute helicopter intro flight one of these days..

 

--NoJoe

[Zentaos]

great read!

[Mogster]

Hmmm, interesting read.

 

I like the bit about always centring the stick after every input movement while hovering. I've just tried it, it really works. :joystick:

 

Same for not moving the collective while hovering. Its true that they heli tends to hold altitude in a hover with a set collective position, I hadn't noticed that but it makes hovering much easier if you don't move the collective.

 

Thanks for posting :thumbup:

[lorenzoj]

Very good stuff ! (Hanscom is just up the road from me too)

 

I had already started spending more time looking ahead instead of down.

 

Also the small stick movements and then return is key. If you don't neutralize BEFORE you notice a correction to your drift then you've waited too long and will just have to chase it in the other direction.

Edited August 16, 2013 by lorenzoj

[slowhand]

Very good read and great share..:thumbup:

[Lucky]

I still suck at hovering, (mainly because I don't fly the Huey very often) but not as bad after following these tips. Thanks for sharing.

Edited August 17, 2013 by Lucky
typo

[enigma6584]

Very cool advice. Will give it a try.

[KLR Rico]

Good stuff. I took a lesson in an R44 once and IMHO the hardest thing to get used to was the lack of centering force, it's so easy to overshoot while making corrections.

 

I could hold a pretty good hover for maybe 5-10 seconds, but then it seems like everything would start to go to s--t with a quickness. I seriously thought we'd die several times during that lesson. LOL

 

Flying helicopters is like drinking through a fire hose. I need to save up some $$ to take a full set of lessons, but DCS, R/C aircraft, and all my other hobbies suck up all the funds as fast as I can come up with them. :D

[Flamin_Squirrel]

I'd love to get my rotary wing license, but it's £300+ per hour ($450) just for the R22 here in the UK. The only reason I could afford a one off lesson was because I was in the states!

 

Apparently the R22 is even harder to fly than the 44 :joystick:

[Baggy MacDouche]

I just wish I had the equivalent controllers with the same touch/feedback as the real thing. It's hard to tell with my Warthog and tweaked axis settings.

[Flamin_Squirrel]

I just wish I had the equivalent controllers with the same touch/feedback as the real thing. It's hard to tell with my Warthog and tweaked axis settings.

 

I've done this following mod:

 

 

I have 100% saturation on all controls with 0% curve. This makes it quite sensitive, but once you get used to it, it works very well.

[muamshai]

cool read, thx for sharing