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Which mode fits me?

This surely has confused newbies even some veteran. What mode should be chosen?

Helicopter moves to the direction which the swash plate tilts towards, this is a basic knowledge and now place a heli in front of the pilot with tail in, test the cyclic input to see what happens to the cyclic..... So obvious, in mode 2 and mode 3, the swashplate tilts to the direction where the cyclic stick moves, the pilot needs only one stick to a full cyclic control and this can easily become intuitive.

Different from mode 2 and 3, the other modes (1,4) break the cyclic control into two different sticks, a complete cyclic movement needs two hands together; thus a newbie needs to spend a short spilt second to "think" of the coordination prior to move. This hinders the pilot to make a quick judgement to correct the cyclic against wind to maintain a good hover.

Besides, I have heard and seen a lot of pilot swtich from mode 1 to mode 2 but not heard of any going the other way around ...

 

Take off and landing

Obviously this is what you can not get away with. Taking off needs a lot of pracitce, starting with, getting use to control the spool up.

1. Place the heli at a good distance from you, slowly push up the throttle stick
2. hold the stick at the point rotor head start spinning, prepare on giving small amount of right rudder
3. unitl the rotorhead reach a constant speed, slowly increase the throttle until heli gets light on the skids and hold again
4. Do NOT take off,you need to get use to those teo positions because they are the thresholds. Pull down the throttle to stop the rotor head and repeat step 1.

Till you are confident, you can now try to take off, make sure you have good control on the throttle cut switch, use it when you are not sure, cut the throttle and drop the heli and to minimze damage.

1. Start the above step but at step 3, keep it there then slowly increase throttle, focus on the cyclic to avoid heli tilting to any side (lots of practice in sim)
2. first two feet is most difficult due to the ground effect
3. once take off, do not rush
4. take off to about 3 feet off ground, try slowly land the heli (prepare to use throttle cut)
5. repeat these until you are confident before you try anything else

 

Practice in Sim

It is a good idea to fully use a good flight simulator for practice, you can practice in all weather, without a three hours drive and extremely safe. Fly often in a sim to familiar yourself with all round hovering to start with. Even spend an hour on sim before going to the field...

Points to note ...practice a sim should take utmost care as flying a real deal, not flying over head, always keep sufficient distance ...... take all precaution as you would do in the field. Also, use discipline as one would in the field, plan what to practice and stay with it, make sure you can take away what you wanted to take.

 

Hovering

This is the most basic skill, important but not difficult, all it takes is a lot of practice. Imagine placing a pin ball on a piece of glass trying to keep it in one spot, proactive constant, delicated small input is surely better than reactive control. In mode 2 and mode 3, take the heli off to a hovering pitch, take your hand off the collective stick and practice hovering with the cyclic only, keep on for as long as possible. When confident, try moving the heli slowly into different directions in a control manner.

Same can be used to invert hover practice

 

Figure Eight

1. In a hover, move the heli from left to right with nose out, stop and hover when the heli arrived at the right

2. move the heli back to the left with nose out to where it started, repeat step and two till confident

3. Start from left moving to right with nose out, half way, input a small right rudder to slowly turn nose right and for a short travel, come to an hover and turn nose out

4. Start from right to left with nose out and half way, input a small left rudder to slowly turn nose left for a short travel, hover and turn nose out

5. repeat step 4 and 5 then you have nose out figure eight

 

What Next?

Once you are confidence with figure eight, your next is 360 degrees hovering. Practice very often in the sim on hovering but now, sub-trim the rudder to approximately 3 second a turn, do it on both directions and then invert. Try as possible to keep the heli in the same spot.

Also, you want to pick up backward figure eight, upright and invert. You are now free to choose what to practice.