Struggling with helicopter control - any advice?

W

wrighty338

New member
I'm only a few hours into RFE but I'm now looking to focus on rotorcraft before venturing into the real thing

I find trying to fly helicopters is totally different and I'm struggling to get to grips with it. I can fly a plane without the "beginner" controls in a pretty calm manner circling around keeping it upright etc but can i heck get a helicopter to fly even in straight lines back and forth

Is the standard control layout optimal for learning or is there something more akin to plane controls that may help?

anything anyone else tried when they started out that really helped?

thx
 
Helicopters are very different. They need much more corrective input than a plane, and in much smaller amounts. It takes LOTS of practice just to make it hover in place and do what you want it to do.

The standard controls are pretty much it. I believe there are training facilities with RF for helis, so I'd recommend spending time with those.

The Blade 230S has SAFE self-level, like the "beginner" mode on the planes. That will help the heli return to a level attitude when you let go of the cyclic (ele/ail) stick. You might find that a little easier to control, but of course ultimately you want to fly without SAFE.
 
wrighty338 said:
Mold around the stock controls and put the hours in then i guess
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Helicopters are HARD. They take the most concentration of any RC vehicle.

I learned to fly them using Realflight G4 many many years ago. I put in dozens of hours in the sim before I ever flew my first Helicopter which was a Blade 400. My suggestion is to fly it with the nose facing away from you and keep it in that orientation until you can hover confidently for several minutes. Don't try to fly anywhere just hold it in about a 3 ft circle. when you get comfortable doing that and it becomes second nature, then flip it around and do nose pointing towards you. Doing this will flip the controls so that what you input is opposite to what you may see, Push left to go right, etc.. Get extremely comfortable in your circle doing that. Then pick a side and keep that side pointed towards you. do the same thing you did with the nose and tail. Get comfortable in all aspects of hovering and then start pushing the stick forward on the collective, use the rudder to control the tail to keep it straight and do big circles or figure 8's. Do this until its second nature.. you can learn to fly this way if you put in the hours.
 
When you start it seems impossible for anybody to be able to control a helicopter while spinning and flipping. But keep at it and it slowly clicks. i learned hovering , tail in (nose faceing away) first, then slowly moved the tail sideways until I could do sideways on then nose in. I then started to learn figure 8s staring by flying digital 8 with square sides then rounding it off. Then I learnt to fly a nose into the centre circle. Then i learned almost the same inverted but with tail in circles. I had a lot’s of crashes at this stage. you’d think by now I’d have all the orientations licked, but no, there’s more. I’m now working on nose to the centre and tail to the centre circles upright and inverted and maybe rotating the helicopter while doing circles if I get good at it. Definitely worth putting the hours in on the sim before trying anything for real. But even after doing that, it’s still scary doing it for the first time for real. My first real go at inverted didn’t go well, panicked and forgot to reverse the collective and went straight into the ground. Even going from the sim 2D display to reality in 3D is different but muscle memory will help once your over the initial shock. I practice a hour a day on the sim while listening to audio books, which I found help with the repetition, try crash, try crash, try crash….

One last thing if you use the Blade 230 model, try to get out of stability mode as soon as possible. Stability mode teaches you to hold inputs as your fighting the self levelling all the time , In the agility mode you’ll only need small inputs and you learn to apply the opposite input to cancel out the movement Instead of relying on the self leveling to do it. Good luck keep trying and you’ll get there.
 
Helicopters are most definitely much different and more challenging than planes. The sense of satisfaction when you can hover and fly smoothly is greater once you begin to master it. I honestly don't think I will ever master all of the thngs that can be done with a heli, that is part of the challenge. It certainly will never be boring! :) Welcome to the addiction!
 
1024kb said:
When you start it seems impossible for anybody to be able to control a helicopter while spinning and flipping.
Click to expand...

Years ago I bought a Blade mCPX, hoping to learn how to fly a collective-pitch heli. I thought it was defective, since mine didn't behave anything like the one in the Horizon Hobby video with James Haley at the controls. :ROFLMAO:
 
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