LESSON 3 - SIDEWAYS HOVER
Now that you can make the heli stay at one spot, it's time to hover the heli sideways.
Here, you will also use more rudder.
Get the heli into a 5 feet hover. Steady your heli for a while until you feel confortable. Now, slowly give it rudder inputs. Let's start with the right. Move the rudder stick very slowly to the right, and notice how the head starts swinging to the right. When the head has moved about 30deg, stop the rotation.
Also, note the effects of the tail rotor in a hover. When you apply more right rudder, you are actually applying more left-ward force on the tail. As a RC Helicopter is not very big, a side effect can be felt in the entire heli drifting to the left. You will need to apply a little right cyclic to counter this effect.
In summary, Right Rudder - Heli Head moves Right, Entire heli drifts left, apply right cyclic to correct.
Okay, now you're looking at the heli at an angle, still tail-in. Hover there for a while, then move the head back to the original fully tail-in position again. Repeat this, but apply more rudder this time, until the heli is at 45 deg angle to you. Keep repeating the exercise but each time applying more right rudder until the heli is completely facing you sideways.
There will be a point, maybe at 70 deg, or 80 deg, that you might start to loose orientation. It is important to recognise disorientation when it happens. This is when you do a stick input and the helicopter reacts in the OPPOSITE manner from what you wanted. Perform the ESCAPE PLAN - QUICK LEFT RUDDER until fully tail in.
It's now a good time for me to say that you must have an ESCAPE PLAN for every exercise that you're doing. The ESCAPE PLAN is the control action you will immediately perform (without thinking) when you notice something isn't right. The purpose of this is to quickly get the heli back to the normal comfort orientation that you're used to seeing.
For me, my universal escape plan for normal non-inverted flight is:
- FULL RUDDER until tail facing you.
- THROTTLE INCREASE gain height
- CYCLIC to get into hover state.
- Reorientate
Coming back to the sideways hover, practice for both right side and left side.
One of the ways to help in this exercise is to point your transmitter in the same direction the head of the heli is facing. That means, if you're hovering 90deg head facing left. Just hold your transmitter so that the antenna is pointing to your left as well. You will find that this helps you in orientating your body in relation to the direction of the heli.
People who have a better imagination can actually imagine themselves sitting inside the heli. If you can do that, you would be able to hover at any orientation.
Once you've mastered sideways hovering, it's time to start doing nose in. |
