RC Helicopter

I recently began flying RC helicopters after along hiatus from the radio control world. When I left about 10 years ago, helicopters were mystical and expensive machines reserved for rich guys and their kids. A decent helicopter would set you back $500+ plus running accessories. Most of the time a shinly new helicopter was either never flown, or flown (crashed) then out away in the attic. This doesn't even factor in broken parts! An aluminum head could cost upwards of $250! These days, you can get a complete electric helicopter and radio for under $300. The thing is, these actually work quite well and are relatively user friendly.

When I say relatively, it's because helicopters are inherently unstable beasts. Imagine trying to balance yourself on a rubber ball, but without the sense of position in spce that your inner ear provides, and without the sensation of your body touching the ball. Learning to fly an RC helicopter is no easy task, but it is something that I will try to document here.

I began my RC helicopter career with a Blade CP. I took it out, and promptly smacked it into the ground. For those that don't know, there have been many attempts by various manned and unmanned vehicles to destroy the ground. None have succeeded. Armed with this information, you can deduce what happened to my poor little heli. I had a couple of good hovers, but I hadn't developed the proper reflexes nor did I even consciously know what inputs to make under what conditions. After buying about $12 in new parts from my favorite local hobby shop, Hobby Fever in Billerica, I was back in action. I discovered Radd's method and quickly became comfortable with keeping the helicopter on it's skids, rather than on it's blades.

The balancing on a ball analogy really helped me to wrap my brain around hovering technique. At steady state, the helicopter can drift off in any random direction. As it slides away, it will tend to pitch down into the direction of travel. This makes it's path somewhat similar to an arc, or the same trajectory one's bum would take sitting on (hence falling off of) a rolling ball. The key is to counter the natural tendency of the machine to slide away. The information about the aircraft's position and acceleration are provided only by visual cues. You see the chopper slide left, then to push a bit of right cyclic into it to counter it. Simple, right? Not as simple as it sounds. In a real helicopter, you have the seat of the pants feel of the machine moving under you. You are provided real time, tactile sensation about what the craft is doing and what effect your inputs have.

Others have said this before me, I'm sure, but I like to look at the flybar disk while flying. The top of the mast, the flybar disc, whatever works for you as long as you are looking at the craft in that general vicinity. Try not to get mesmerized by the rotors whirling around there and focus on keeping the flybar disc flat.

The yaw axis is easy. It is the easiest and with least consequence of any input you can make to a helicopter. The machine simply pivots about it's axis, or more accurately, the axis of the rotor shaft. When learning, the first thing to do is to master the tail. Don't even THINK about getting those skids light unless you can hold that tail straight! At this point, I'd like to point out an invaluable resource for the budding helicopter pilot. That would be Radd's School of Rotary Flight. I'm not sure who Radd is, but I couldn't fly a helo unless I had read his tutorial. So thanks Radd!

http://www.dream-models.com/eco/flying-index.html

The cyclic control, or left right and front/rear control is much more difficult to master. The thing about it that is so counter-intuitive is the fact that you must make an input, then catch the resulting motion from that input, then catch the input from that last correction! Unlike in a sliding automobile where a simple correction then recovery will reign in the wild horse, a helicopter requires constant input to maintain steady state operation. That's not to say that it is impossible! It is certainly within the capability of the human brain to control a helicopter. If it weren't Igor Sikorsky wouldn't have been as famous a man as he is.

It's key to remember that while flying is fun, it shouldn't be put ahead of keeping the machine in top form. It's very common to rush through a repair procedure, skip the setup, and proceed directly to flight testing. Setup is key to helicopters. A couple of degrees off here, a few MM there, can and will lead to catastrophe. Trust me, I've broken parts out of laziness then kicked myself later! When you are wrenching on your helicopter, always ask yourself this: "Would I trust my life, or the life of others to my craftsmanship?". Not that you would fly in a machine with so many critical plastic parts, but you should take every step possible to take the machine out of the equation so you can focus on being a hot shot pilot!