Tips on Learning to Hover a Helicopter



Posted: Saturday, January 26, 2008

by
http://helipilotcareers.com

If you are thinking of learning to fly a helicopter, it is probably one of the most exciting and rewarding challenges you will face.

Some people have compared flying a helicopter to rubbing your stomach and patting your head at the same time. If only it were that easy!

When I first began flying helicopters I was sometimes overwhelmed with the amount of workload needed to maintain control of a helicopter during a hover. It was very difficult to keep the helicopter over a spot at a constant altitude while talking on the radio and maintaining my situational awareness. I remember having a death grip on the controls and sweating like pig.

I soon got the hang of the helicopter and found a few things that helped me overcome some of the difficulties of controlling a helicopter during a hover.

1. Try and relax your grip on the controls, they are very sensitive and only require small inputs.

2. Choose a fixed object about 100ft-200ft in the distance to look at, like a tree or structure and focus on that. If you look too close or through the chin bubble your movements will appear larger and cause you to over correct.

3. Don't let your instructor push you too hard, take a break now and then. It can take between five and ten hours for students to learn to hover without assistance from an instructor.

4. Wear comfortable cloths and shoes.

5. Take your time and don't let anyone rush you. 6. Rest your right arm on your right leg while holding the cyclic. This acts as a pivot point so you can move the cyclic with your fingers and wrist.

There are four controls we use to fly a helicopter.

1. Cyclic
The cyclic is a stick located between the pilots legs and is used to distribute rotor thrust which gives us our directional control. The helicopter will move in the direction that the cyclic is placed.

2. Collective
The collective is a lever located on the floor to the left of the pilot and is used to increase and decrease rotor thrust. As the collective is raised the pitch of all the main rotor blades increases together causing the helicopter to lift.

3. Yaw Pedals
The yaw pedals, sometimes called anti torque pedals, are used to maintain heading during the hover and keep the helicopter in trim during forward flight. They are used with the pilot's feet and control the pitch of the tail rotor blades. Push the right pedal and the helicopter will rotate to the right and rotate left if you push left pedal.

4. Throttle
The throttle is located on the end of the collective and rotates like a motorcycle throttle, except that it rotates in the opposite direction. This is used to maintain the engine and rotor rpm. As the collective is increased the rpm will droop low due to more drag on the main rotor, requiring the pilot to roll on throttle to maintain rpm. As the collective is decreased the rpm will increase due to less drag on the main rotor requiring the pilot to roll off throttle to maintain rpm.

Think before you move the throttle. It only needs small movements and if you roll throttle down too much the rotor rpm will decrease rapidly resulting in the rotor blades folding upward to the point where rotor rpm is unrecoverable.

Richard has been flying helicopters for ten years in various operations in different parts of the world. His career began with flight instruction and moved on to corporate to off shore and finally settling in California to fly an emergency medical services helicopter.
For information on helicopter safety and helicopter pilot careers, visit http://helipilotcareers.com
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