What is a good hover?

[bell222]

lol, looks too easy Grumpy....
So out of interest, was HH on?

[bell222]

A tip I found useful for side on hovering (I'm still learning) is to gradually move the tail round in small steps until the heli is side on to you. It's much harder if you go from tail in to side on straight away. I agree with the previous post about using sims. They are great but I struggle to do a good hover on them. I'm forcing myself to use it though to get some stick time when I can't get to the field.

Thanks Shady80

I wil try that in the field.
I have tried slow pyro hovering. I am ok in the SIM but loose control in the field.
May be panic or nerves....

[bell222]

I suppose a good thing to aim for initially is what is required to pass a BMFA 'A' Cert in Heli's.

Have a read. https://bmfa.org/DesktopModules/Brin...Id=0&TabId=244

Good point Granpappy.
Interestingly, the brief Hover time is 5 seconds!

[Grumpy]

lol, looks too easy Grumpy....
So out of interest, was HH on?

Yes, I only ever fly with the tail on heading hold. i think most would say the same these days.

[bell222]

Doesn't it also depend on what it is you're hovering? I've had a battery or 3 through my nano this afternoon and I'd challenge anybody to keep it still. Compare that to my 200SRX which I can keep within a 1mtr cube until I lose concentration. Soon I hope to get a 450l, I'll be disappointed if I can't keep that reatively stable. Or I'm talking complete hoop!?

I can get my mCPX fairly stable for a length of time.
Since it is indoor, there is no draft or wind etc...
But a small amount of cyclic will zoom it across the room.

The 450L is very stable but tends to drift more because I fly it outside. So it is harder to keep on one place.

[waveydavey]

A tip I found useful for side on hovering (I'm still learning) is to gradually move the tail round in small steps until the heli is side on to you. It's much harder if you go from tail in to side on straight away. I agree with the previous post about using sims. They are great but I struggle to do a good hover on them. I'm forcing myself to use it though to get some stick time when I can't get to the field.

A good way to hover side on is to move the heli off to one side and then turn side on so you are in fact hovering tail in(ish), you get a better perspective. Gradually move the heli backwards as you get more comfortable

[Guest]

Everyone learns nose in differently some do it high in the sky i did it by putting the training gear back on and just tried to take off and hover nose in

[waveydavey]

I wouldn't even worry about nose in until you've got the confidence to move the heli around the field a bit, you can gradually expose yourself to nose in with an F8 flown with a little height. You'll have the confidence to swing it tail in if you get into trouble.

[Mike Sanders]

I managed nose in by starting with lazy eights, tail in at first. Then as I got more confident, getting more and more sideways. Eventually I went further out and the nose started to point at me as the heli came back to the centre. Eventually I could fly nose in and I could then hover nose in.
It took me about a year to achieve because I am an codger and not too quick on the uptake.
P.S. It is much easier with a larger heli.

[bell222]

thank you all for the advice.
I will practice tail in and side on in the garden and try F8 at the field as soon as the heli is back up.
I have stripped the front torque tube gear after a heavy landing... and I am waiting for new mCPX shaft. So both are grouded for the moment.

I still have the Sim to practice on while waiting.
I''ll post my progress as I go along but wont be for a few days due to above reasons...

Cheers,

Lucas

[Thor]

Lots of great advice has already been given. I just want to mention this great resource for progressing: From tail-in to all 8s and funnels in 6 months - HeliFreak. It has done me no end of good since I started practicing seriously on the sim last November. I did not manage to live up to the title in 6 months, partly due to too little flying IRL, partly because I'm getting older (44), and partly because I'm just a little slow ;-) At this point I am getting good at all 8s IRL and funnels are coming along nicely on the sim.

Your mileage may vary.

[Peteski]

HH all the way for me, this game does not need to be made any harder than it already is! Plus you will always use HH for more advanced flying anyway, so nothing extra to learn later.

First off I learned the 4 basic static upright orientations and then learned how to keep the heli in a stable hover while very slowly turning the tail through a complete 360 degrees in both directions i.e. very slow CW and CCW piros. This forces you to become aware of all possible orientations and is much harder than you can imagine. I'm currently in the process of learning these orientations inverted and it's taking twice as long!

But once these basic hovering orientations become completely natural you will find that you can magically move the heli around pretty much at free will without any further training. It really is that simple! But if you start flying circuits and figure eights etc without fully learning all the hovering orientations, you will be very limited in what you can do and any move off line will catch you out. So don't rush to progress much beyond hovering until you can do it effortlessly in all upright orientations. It will take longer and look like less impressive progress to a bystander, but you will progress much faster later on if you can nail it. I spent literally months on the sim doing nothing but slow upright piros keeping the heli as still as possible on the spot and I found it by far the most useful training exercise. Boring but very useful!

[Holst]

To practice tail control I would turn HH on then try precisely turning 1/8 of a turn each way and try and stay in one spot slightly away from tail in.
Eventually you can work up to a full pirouette.

[bell222]

Lots of great advice has already been given. I just want to mention this great resource for progressing: From tail-in to all 8s and funnels in 6 months - HeliFreak. It has done me no end of good since I started practicing seriously on the sim last November. I did not manage to live up to the title in 6 months, partly due to too little flying IRL, partly because I'm getting older (44), and partly because I'm just a little slow ;-) At this point I am getting good at all 8s IRL and funnels are coming along nicely on the sim.

Your mileage may vary.

Thanks Thor,

I did start with this training a few weeks ago.
My slow piros are ok on the sim but I then realised that I still cannot hover nose in for more than a few seconds.
I though I will start from the basic and try this training again once I have got that right.

[bell222]

To practice tail control I would turn HH on then try precisely turning 1/8 of a turn each way and try and stay in one spot slightly away from tail in.
Eventually you can work up to a full pirouette.

Thanks Holst,

I will give this a go once the heli is fixed and back in the air.