Flying tip - Gentle, automatic slowdown

[Jack McCoy]

I'd liked to share a tip for the newby or lazy pilot.

 

When you're trimmed at cruise speed, constant altitude, not turning and you want to slow down, just hit the auto-hover button. Like when returning to base.

 

The helicopter will pitch up about 10 degrees and slow you down to 0 km/h - hands-off. Once at the desired speed turn off auto-hover, set desired attitude, trim. You can decelerate faster by pulling back on the stick yourself, but that defeats the purpose of "automatic slowdown". :joystick:

 

It's not much different from just pulling back on the cyclic, but has the advantage of illustrating to new pilots how to slow down, and help any pilot maintain precise altitude more easily than slowing down manually.