- Probably the best thing I ever did after
purchasing my Shuttle ZX was to get a mentor. Even though I have
many years of RC experience flying planks (airplanes) there remained
a great deal about RC helicopters I didn't know. So, after I got my
radio installed I took my helicopter to my mentor-friend and with his
help, we set it up for training. I think it's worth mentioning that
from the outset, my mentor had the heli trimmed nose down somewhat.
This means for hover, I must always hold slight back pressure on the
cyclic. I would realize the benefits of this technique later on when
I got into forward flight. Once my mentor was satisfied everything
was in order, the lessons started.
- Looking back, I think the thing I had most difficulty with was the
collective/yaw stick. "Waking up" my left thumb was a chore. The cyclic,
on the other hand, seemed to make sense to me and I had little trouble
with it. In the beginning I would find myself concentrating on power
(collective) and forget the yaw for a moment or three. I think the
turning point (no pun intended) is when I figured out the yaw regardless
of which direction the heli was pointing. What worked for me is quite
simple in concept; right input on the yaw stick makes the heli rotate
clockwise and left input on the yaw stick makes it rotate counter-clockwise.
Thinking of it in this manner eliminates the confusion of whether you're
looking at the nose or tail.
- When I reached the point where I could hold a study hover within a 3
foot area my mentor instructed me to start doing the so-called "side
swipe." At about 3 feet of altitude I would nudge the heli sideways a
few feet and then back to the starting point. Soon, I could allow the
heli wider movement and more speed. This is where I first encountered
translational lift, meaning the heli would begin to climb slightly as
it moved. As I became more proficient with the side swipes I would
allow the nose to point more in the direction of movement. This technique
helped lead up to the next step of training — figure 8's.
- Figure 8's seemed a little scarey at first because this is where
coordinated turns start happening. The procedure was to fly at about 3
feet altitude and always turn away from myself which helped with
orientation. Soon, it became second-nature to add in the appropriate
amount of yaw while rolling (slightly) into a turn. Back and forth,
back and forth. Fun!
- After the figure 8's came circles, both left and right. My mentor
was big on not getting into the habit of only turning or pointing in
one direction. Good advice. With circles, I would start moving around
myself slowly at about 10 feet out. As I picked up speed I would allow
the circle diameter to grow until I eventually was doing 80 or 100 foot
diameter circles. This was a confidence builder as it exposed me to
the effects of translational lift to a higher degree than previously
encountered.
- Ok, now what? My mentor, never lacking for things to torture me
with, said it was time to practice landing approaches. Makes sense. At
first, he had me fly away from myself about 15 or 20 feet and then make
a smooth turn and fly back pretty much towards myself. As the heli
approached I would start raising the nose and adjusting power/collective
as necessary to avoid terra-firma. As I flew the heli farther out I
found that I would have to reduce power somewhat to avoid getting too
high. The beginning of the inbound approach would often be at only 1/3
power but as the heli neared the touch-down area I would have to bring
the power back up to hover power (1/2 throttle) or a bit more to arrest
the sink. With practice, practice, practice I started to feel reasonably
comfortable with this mandatory maneuver.
- Just as I was feeling pretty comfortable with approaches from the right
my mentor, always bent on spoiling my day, told me to also do them from the
left. It felt a bit awkward at first but I did it. Over and over again!
One day when I was letting the approaches go farther and farther
out I just let the heli fly past and then turned and fly past again. I
guess this could be called forward flight! It felt great! Initially, I
found that my Shuttle would fly around at about 1/3 throttle which greatly
helped with my nervousness — nice, easy cruise flight. As I got more used
to this flight realm I started inching up the power until I could handle
full power now and then. Actually, I like cruising in forward flight at
about 1/2 throttle (less pitch sensitivity) and adding power during steep
turns. Works for me!
- Well, now you know my progress to date with my helicopter. I still
have a lot to learn; auto-rotations, loops, rolls, etc. I probably won't
get into these areas until I can afford to replace my basic Airtronics
heli radio with a computer radio. In the meantime, I plan to burn
fuel!
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