Flight School Part 3 - Circuits & Figure 8's

Figure 3.1 - The Classic Figure 8

Welcome to Part 3 of Helidaniel.com's 100% free on-line 3D RC helicopter Flight School - where we help fellow heli pilots crash less and fly more!

Prerequisites
For this lesson, you should be extremely comfortable with nose in, nose out, nose right and nose left hovering. Parts 1 and 2 helps you get there.

Flying circuits and figure 8's look deceptively simple! You might think that once you got your hover nailed, flying around is easy.... Well, it does make it much easier, but don't get ahead of yourself just yet! Better safe than sorry!

Hovering and Flight Are Different
As explained in Part 1, the heli's main rotor starts acting like an airplane's wing once you build up some speed. That simply means you have to learn another whole way of controlling your heli! Failure to understand this and tackle it with patience is the reason why a good number of budding heli pilots crash their heli as soon as they start flying around.

Sim-ply Better
Rather than giving a long and boring treatise on how to control the heli when flying around, I recommend that u simply conduct your own experiments with your simulator! Try tilting your heli forward and build up some good speed, then start messing with your elevator, alieron and collective taking note of what happens each time. You'll notice that it flies like a plane most of the time, but the nose doesn't point in the direction of your flight, and you can dramatically alter your lift with your collective!

Yup, you guessed it! Now you have to learn to point your heli into your chosen direction of flight and manage the collective so that you don't climb to high or smash your heli into the ground at high speed! (It happens)

Learning The Brakes
Another thing you'll notice banging your heli around like this in the sim is that it's kinda hard to slow down after you have gathered some speed! Before you start flying your heli around at the field, you would want to make sure you can slow your heli down!

Activating the brakes on the heli is relatively simple - tilt your main rotor away from your direction to travel and simultaneously manage your collective so that you don't climb or lose altitude. Ok, it's not so simple, but you'll get it soon enough!

Slow is gold! You know you got your forward flight nailed when you are able to control your speed well. That normally means you are able to fly at a consistent slow speed. That's right, it's harder to fly slow than fast!

The Drill
Wow! We are way into this lesson and I haven't even got into circuits and figure 8's yet! I tend to believe in the superior intelligence of all who read this and give mainly tips and hints. In other words - go figure! (Hey! A pun!)

Fly a counter-clockwise (CCW) circuit and fly a clockwise (CW) circuit. Once you've done that well, fly a 3/4 CCW circuit on your left and a 3/4 CW circuit on your right joining them together with straight lines in the middle. Viola! A figure 8! (See Figure 3.1) Don't forget to do it with a CW circuit on your left and CCW circuit on your right too!

A Little Easier
If flying complete circuits is a little above your head, try 1/4 circuits first, then 1/2 circuits. Take it a little step at a time and you'll find the learning more progressive and manageable.

Being A Great Pilot
Fly it all with constant speed and altitude. Keep your flying centered in front of you too! That usually makes the difference between a good pilot and a great pilot!

Getting Better
I have assumed you have been flying with your nose pointed into your direction of flight, for the adventurous, you'll have to try the same drill with your nose pointed backwards then the same sideways! Note that mastering that will take time! There are no shortcuts (at least safe ones). Keep on flying and trying!

Next!
Once you have mastered this lesson, you should be able to do upright heli flying pretty well, fears of crashing you heli will be all but vanished (ok, maybe not totally...) but you should be enjoying your flights more and more! Then I'll recommend a little aerobatics! Namely - Part 4 - Backward Circuits!

Thanks for reading and keep it flying!