RC Heli Training Tip

Do not overreact and slam it into the ground. Slowly lower the collective and gradually bring it back E Warehouse Page 25 of 172 down. Be prepared for the wind to stop and the helicopter to descend more quickly. Again, do not over-react and send it launching into the sky. Just take it easy and if it gets "on top of you" do not touch anything but a little forward cyclic for 1 or 2 seconds.

� Experiment, if you haven't already, with loops and rolls
� You are ready to try the real thing! More advanced sim practice
� If you have CSM, turn all the colors of the model to pure black. This will simulate the common lighting conditions you fly in for real when the helicopter just turns into a silhouette. This is supposed to disorient you because it will be hard to tell if the helicopter is banking away or towards you etc. This happens in real life so you should practice for it.
� Turn the rudder trim half way off center so that the heli is doing a complete 360 once every 2 seconds or so. Do nottouch the rudder now! Only use the collective. Try and slowly fly around without touching the rudder, to do this you need to continually be adjusting the cyclic since the helicopter will always be pointing in different directions. Try to land this way. When you get E Warehouse Page 24 of 172 good at it, reverse the direction of the rudder. When you are good at this, land while slowly pirouetting.
� Turn the gyro gain channel on your tx as low as it can go. This will make you control that tail!
� Practice hovering inverted and flying around inverted
� Practice flying around backwards slowly. This is very difficult
� Practice flying around backwards while inverted. Yikes. The Real McCoy
� I suggest that you should wait to fly the real thing until you can confidently fly around in the simulator and land without crashing. You will be much better off in the event of an emergency and learn quicker too.
� Put big training gear on your heli
� Have someone verify the linkages, reversing, and test fly if possible
� Practice doing small hops up to 6 inches, paying attention to how the helicopter is trimmed. Do not adjust your trim in the air unless you are very confident. Drifting to the left (in US helicopters) is normal and results from the tail rotor thrust which you can compensate for by putting a very-very slight right-bank in just after takeoff, but this is different than pitching. If your helicopter banks, yaws or pitches by itself you need to compensate with trim.
� Practice hovering from 6 inches to 1 foot. Be prepared for gusts: wind will increase the effectiveness of your rotor blades and make your helicopter climb fast.

Eventually it will fly out in front of you, level off and use back cyclic as needed to stop, then level off again.

Adjust gyro as needed to stop wagging or tail swaying when you adjust power. � Practice hovering out of ground effect. At least 3 feet up, and hold it steady, the wind will really affect the height at this level.