An Alternative Nose Job

[RotaryOne]

Getting nose on hovering was becoming a serious mental hang-up for me; I could do it well enough on the simulator but for real that was a different job entirely and I knew it was purely a mental thing.

Now some prevailing advice is to do a loop so that you end up bringing the heli towards you, but that worried me if I could not hover in that mode. So getting a nose-on hover seemed to me crucial to the development of basic helicopter control skills and everything else would seem to stem from being able to hover well in all orientations.

I decided to go back to training gear and develop nose-on that way. So that's take-offs, hover and landing all in the nose-on mode - and so far it has worked a dream, but remember it is based on alot (and I mean a lot) of work on the sim first, so that the control imputs are coming naturally, then it is much easier when you get to the real thing.

Best Regards

Nigel

[machasm]

Well done.
I would not have advised anyone to do a loop to end up with the heli facing in if they were not comfortable doing nose-in to start with.
Seems like a recipe for disaster.
I think you have done the correct thing to have done the sim work first and then progressed from there.
Now just need your side-on orientations.
Good job.
Adrian.

[andylinney]

I agree with Adrian here, I cracked nose in a while back and have only just done my first loop. A loop is a really dynamic, high energy manouver needing a lot of power and a fair bit of space, far better to do as you're doing Nigel. Either chuck the gear back on and go at it from the ground up, or once you're confident with tail in and side on, take off, gain some height and flick the tail around to start work on nose in. That way if it gets out of hand you can simply turn the tail through 180 and recover tail in (worked for me - along with LOADS of time on the sim).

Andy

[Rotorhead]

I decided to go back to training gear and develop nose-on that way. So that's take-offs, hover and landing all in the nose-on mode - and so far it has worked a dream

IMO thats the best way to do it, and if people tell you you dont need to have the training U/C on when doing so tell them to get lost, you've chosen a wise method of mastering it, its an unfamiliar orientation and if it prevents one tip over then thats better than risking it just to satisfy someone elses ideas of whats a good idea to do.

I've always said that the method that gets best results is doing what you are doing, from the ground up, with the training U/C on.

[RotaryOne]

Many thanks to 10 PMRotorhead, andylinney and machasm
For their useful contributions. Of course, for loop read circle (or circuit) out so that the heli is coming in nose on.

More practise this evening working on nose on landings. It coming on.

And thanks also to Boggey for his constant patience and quiet encouragement, particularly since he unselfishly helps so many others as well. Oh, and thanks also, Ron, for books - very interesting and helpful.

[SRH990]

I just flew circuit ending with the heli coming straight at me, nose in. If I felt uncomfortable I just turned my body 90 degrees left, my brain then thought the heli was flying past and no problem