Originally posted by Nitroaddict Error's post is sad, but here is another that is even worse.
Wasn't my post, I just replied to it. But if that was directed at my reply, well, it's just my humble opinion.
Candyman, always remember this: Never think of the tail and which way it moves. This will only cause confusion later. If you move the rudder (tail rotor) stick left, then the nose should move left, just like a fixed wing plane.
Depth perception: do you have real good depth perception? Helis don't present much in the way of a sight profile and the pilot can become disoriented easily. Essentially only the pod and the tail fin are visible in flight, and the heli can appear to be flying one way when in fact it is going the other way. If you end up flying toward yourself, do not try to go to a hover pointed nose in (more on that in a minute), keep flying until it passes by you and then transition to a hover. Foreward flight should be avoided until you can hover pretty good. When you're nose in (the nose is pointed at you), the right stick is all backwards, just like driving a car. In a hover it is real easy to move the sticks in the wrong direction when it's nose in. Say the heli stats drifting toward you, you brain says to push the right stick to get it to go away from you. But since this is wrong (from the heli's perspective) you will end up flying faster toward you. The best thing I could suggest is to remember to move the stick under the low side of the rotor when hovering (from the heli's perspective). Hovering nose out keeps things "simple" by not having to deal with apparently reversed controls.
NA was right about low hovers being harder than high hovers. There's a thing called "the bubble" that happens down low. Essentially it's a high pressure area where the air can't get out of the way due to the ground. It's kind of like a hovercraft effect. Riding the bubble is cool once you get the hang of it, but until then there'll be alot of bobbing around. If this bobbing gets too bad, either increase throttle to get above the bubble and settle down, or land it. Landing it can be tricky because if you hit too hard, you'll boom strike and F your heli up. The rotor will flex down and strike the tail boom, this is bad.
Training gear for a micro. If you don't have a set, or can't find one, they are pretty easy to make. Some wood dowels (2 2' pieces), 4 whiffle balls and some rubber bands or zip ties. Make a cross with the dowels and secure the balls on the ends and attach to the skids. Make sure the training gear is as big as the rotor span. This will add weight to the heli making it less prone to getting too high, and will decrease the likelyhood of tip overs.
Hope this helped, and good luck (it aint easy).
Whitt...
