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Now that you have completed the Basic Ground
Exercises section, lets try to hover!
Place the helicopter 5 foot in front of you with
the tail pointing towards you, or the nose away from
you.
Now bring the helicopter up to speed just like
you did in the previous lesson.
Now when you have it stable on the ground, give
it a little more throttle/collective. Now the
helicopter will begin to lift off the ground, and
continue to rise. When the helicopter gets about 1
foot off the ground, lower the throttle/collective
just enough to cause it to stay staionairy.
Try your hardest to keep the helicopter in one
spot. I know that this will be very difficult at
first, but stick with it. Once you have had the
helicopter in the air for 30 seconds or so, lower
the throttle/collective and set the helicopter back
onto the ground.
Now think about what has happened, why it has
happened, and what you did right and wrong while
hovering the helicopter.
Now that you have digested some of the actions of
the helicopter, and you know somewhat how it is
going to react to your input while in a hover, give
it another try.
Again rev the engine up slowly and bring it to
about 1 foot off the ground. Hold the helicopter
there as long as you can this time. It is ok if the
helicopter goes forward, right, left, or back.
Just bring it back to the original starting
point.
In the beginning bringing the helicopter back to
the starting point is going to be very difficult. Do
not get discouraged. Practice will make perfect.
Soon the helicopter will not even move off the point
that you lifted off from.
Once you get fairly good in a 1 foot hover,
increase the throttle/collective to bring the
helicopter to a 3-4 foot hover. You will notice that
it becomes easier to control at the higher altitude.
This is because your helicopter is no longer in
ground effect. Before in your 1 foot hover, if your
flying area was on the slightest slant, you would
have noticed that your helicopter wanted to float
right down the slant. About 3 1/2 foot, this ground
effect is not existent.
Keep practicing your hovering until you can keep
the helicopter in one spot for a full tank of fuel.
I know this is going to take some time, and you wish
to move on, but it is important to master the hover
before moving on to other maneuvers.
Remember that a helicopter flight begins
and ends with a hover! |
