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Hovering for beginners


Kang

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Slowly getting onto the bandwagon of the AH-64 I noted that when trying to hover the Apache has a rather 'squirrely' tendency do try and get away from me, something I last experienced when I was trying out the Gazelle. Other pilots quickly pointed me towards Wags' introductory video of getting airborne and hovering.

Am I the only one who got the sensation that that video is basically ten minutes of 'fly it like a helicopter! Just git gud!'?

(I think it is true, though, trying it a few times I can feel it getting easier and less stressful already. Still kinda funny.)

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Yep just takes lots of practice and coordinating the correct amount of pedal and cyclic input.

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Don B

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The Apache does seem a little squirrely - but hovering is unlikely to ever be easy for newcomers in their first heli and will always take practice. "Just git gud" is a blunt way of saying there aren't any short cuts, which is true to an extent.

That said, there are tips that can help. Probably the best one is understanding that maintaining the attitude of the helicopter is key. To be able to hover means your eyes have to be very sensitive to detecting correcting changes in the helicopter's attitude.

Find a wide flat area, lift off the ground and try to hold an attitude. If you start to drift don't panic, just readjust the attitude a little to try and correct and hold it again. See what happens, and repeat. AVOID LARGE CORRECTIONS!

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Practice. Lift her up and focus on a tree or a building a ways in front of you. Use your peripherals to adjust the helo. You're making movements in anticipation of what the aircraft will do, not necessarily what it has done already. You have to be mentally ahead of it. I'm just a simmer not a real pilot - the real deal can probably give you a better tip on this. Eventually it becomes sort of muscle memory.

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One thing I noticed yesterday is that I need more deadzone on my cyclic axes than I do on other modules.

The Apache seems to be quite sensitive to small inputs. I have an older CH Fighterstick which often does not re-center perfectly, especially after small inputs like the ones you make when you try to fine-tune a hover. So in case you (like me) usually manage to get in a pretty good hover ( < 10 knots or so) but then struggle to keep it stable and reduce the drift to near zero, try increasing your deadzone. I now use a deadzone of 5 for both cyclic axes (which is more than double of what I usually use). Hovering has become a lot easier for me.

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Watch this.  I find the settings in this video work extremely well for the Warthog and Thurstmaster TPRs.  I suspect they will set you on  a good path for other controllers and being able to manage in a hover.

 

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Practice practice practice, you will improve, and once altitude hold is ready it will be a breeze for you. 😉

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When i first start to fly RC helicopters someone tells me "With helicopters you have to be flying it always" meaning that on planes, if you relases the controls the plane will continue to flying on the same attitude (more or less, of course) but on helicopters you have to maintain all axis on movement to fly it correctly and thats change my mind.

With that and practice you will get it, as to planes when doing precise flying like air refueling, you have to anticipate the corrections to the movements, if you wait to correct after the helicopters start to move, you are late and for that you need more practice

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17 hours ago, S. Low said:

Practice. Lift her up and focus on a tree or a building a ways in front of you. Use your peripherals to adjust the helo. You're making movements in anticipation of what the aircraft will do, not necessarily what it has done already. You have to be mentally ahead of it. I'm just a simmer not a real pilot - the real deal can probably give you a better tip on this. Eventually it becomes sort of muscle memory.

^THIS^

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I tend to pause my TrackIR when transitioning so I can see the changes in attitude a lot better. That has really helped me get a better feel for it. I think I was correcting attitude changes with my head subconsiously, so I didn't notice them as much.

Still need a lot of practice to "git gud", but its getting there.

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Yea, also adding a little bit of advice: do check on the trimmer method selected in the options. Mine was set to 'instant' by default which is quite the change from the 'center' I always used for the Huey. Little things, a little bit of practice. As I said in the original post: things already got better after an hour or so trying around.

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One of the biggest mistakes people make when learning to hover is looking to close in front of the helicopter.

If you look to close to the ground in front of the helicopter every movement will seem exaggerated and will cause you to over correct, try moving you eyes much further out away from the helicopter. Pick a spot, a tree or a building and look at that instead, it will help.

everything else is just down to practice, remember every time you move one control you have to move the other two. So if you move the cyclic to stop a drift you lessen the ground effect under you just splighlty so you will need to pull pitch to compensate this in turn will require more left pedal to counteract the increased torque. Once you are back on the ball of air you will need to reduce pitch and again the right pedal…….rinse and repeat.

imagine the helicopter is sitting on top of a ball of air which is trying to throw you off in every direction!!!

evenutally your muscle memory will start acting automatically so that you are moving all three controls in unison almost before the control input is needed……but it takes time and patience.

 

 

 

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My best description for beginners flying any helicopter…

Airplanes are like bicycles. They require periods of attention, but can be controlled with little effort when properly trimmed. A very stable craft.

Helicopters are like unicycles. Inherently unstable. They require constant attention, with constant corrections. However, once properly trimmed only requires very small correction, but still constant correction. The trick is preventing yourself to make too big of a correction or to prevent yourself creating an oscillation. Recognize, correct, and repeat. Keep the corrections small. Remember, small corrections are easier to fix than large ones.

With that in mind, check your input gear and settings, they may be preventing you of making small corrections. But that’s the general mantra I use.


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