Inverted Hovering

[Steve]

Now that I've got my sim, I'm keen to learn to hover and fly inverted.

For now, I'd settle for just maintaining a constant stationary hover, either nose-in or tail-in, but just can't get my head around it on the sim.

Does anyone have any golden simple nuggets of wisdom that'll make the whole process seem 'obvious'?

[jimbob]

Now thats funny.... I was trying the very same thing myself today...

Hard innit!

[Ade_Law]

have a think about what stick inputs are needed for different angles helps speed up the responses. eg if your nose in and the model is moving to the left you need to push the stick to the left to correct it.

Ade

[jamiem]

i learnt nose in inverted hover first. I found it easier this way as it was then easy to flip back to a very easy tail in hover. Start by doing loops and holding the inverted bit with a bit of forward travel and come out of it the same as a loop. Keep practicing this until you can really start to slow down the inverted bit. Eventually you will find you can stop it, and then its just a matter of fine-tuning it to work with the height and tail. It wont take long

[Thomas]

Best bit of advise I ever got was from Daren on here and that was always have an escape plan - So from a nose in hover to get out of trouble left stick down and right stick up, this pushed the model away and gives it height - not a heap of use on the sim but saved me from many crashed when learning for real.


Most over here seem to learn nose in, over the pond they do tail in.

[Steve]

Thanks.

I've done an inverted pirouette at the top of a loop a couple of times and held the inverted bit for a few seconds while travelling forwards for real with my Sciddly Doo, but that just seems to happen automatically, with no real input from me other than holding a bit of negative collective.

Holding a stationary hover is a different thing all together. I've been flying helis for so long now the right way up, that I just can't get the sticks going the right way when it's inverted. My real problem is with the pitch (elevator) axis, and the collective pitch - can't get the hang of pulling the stick backwards to increase height!

[Thomas]

can't get the hang of pulling the stick backwards to increase height!

That is one of the most importand bits

[colin n]

you could

get on a buddy box and learn it one stick at a time.

[Ade_Law]

yeh the hovertraining on phoenix does the same...

shame you dont have phoenix huh :-)

Ade

[Guest]

I can hover nose in inverted to within a 10 foot drift now on the sim
And now starting to move the tail around a bit

With Phoenix in training mode it's quite a bit easier to learn
One stick at a time until you get use to it

Can't wait to try the real thing probably with diapers on

[colin n]

Oh yes so it does.

my poor little princess din't know that

naughty daddy.

[jimbob]

I can do a half loop to inverted, then a half circuit finishing in a half loop back to the right way up. I can also stop after a half loop and hover inverted for a few seconds.

What I really want to do is to be confident in flying inverted circuits and stopping inverted at any point.

I can do inverted nose in hovering on the sim for a while, but eventually I always put a wrong rudder input in on a turn and in she goes

Oh well... practice practice practice I suppose!

[Rotorhead]

Does anyone have any golden simple nuggets of wisdom that'll make the whole process seem 'obvious'?

I hope this helps, these are the methods I used to get my head arround it, the last part about the circuits should help anyone learning it and is easy to remember, once you get some practice on the sim and start doing inverted circuits you will see what I mean when I say they are the opposites of the other way up in the other direction.

From here, I'm talking relative to the ground, not to the helicopter....... nose up = up to the sky etc, not nose up relative to normal helicopter orientations.

When tail in inverted, roll axis is as normal (think of a stationary roll) pitch is reversed, if you push the stick away from you, the heli will nose up towards the sky, and start flying towards you, if you pull the stick towards you it will fly away.

Rudder is also reversed, its best to look at the closest part, ie the tail, you push left on the rudder stick, the tail will move to the left.

When nose in, elevator is the same as normal way up tail in, push away heli flys away, pull back heli flys back, roll is reversed, rudder is still reversed, look at the closest part, ie the nose, same rules apply, push left, nose moves to the left.

For circuits, inverted forwards is the same as upright backwards circuits, if you can do backwards circuits already then thinking of this will make it easier, inverted backwards is the same as upright forwards, so if you have a decent gyro that will not let go, then backwards should actually be easier than forwards, as its the same controls as forwards circuits right way up, which should be instinctual by this stage.

When people think of it like this they usually come back later and say that they are finding it much easier to do it because they are thinking about it in a more familiar way to what they already can do.

I take the same aproach with teaching the basics, there are tricks to get your head round it, eg right way up always look at the furthest part of the heli for rudder control, inverted, look at the closest part, when nose in right way up, follow the heli with the cyclic stick to correct drift.

[Thomas]

I can do a half loop to inverted, then a half circuit finishing in a half loop back to the right way up. I can also stop after a half loop and hover inverted for a few seconds.

What I really want to do is to be confident in flying inverted circuits and stopping inverted at any point.

I can do inverted nose in hovering on the sim for a while, but eventually I always put a wrong rudder input in on a turn and in she goes

Oh well... practice practice practice I suppose!

As with backwards when learning remember to push the both sticks together for clockwise a turn and pull them apart for anti - other way round fro backwards though.

[moyesboy]

The close in low inverted hover, for real, is best done nose in. Half flip to inverted.
This is because the elvator is not reversed, control stays the same - so you are less likely to fly the heli into yourself.
I can inverted hover nose in with confidence. I have clipped the grass now for a laugh. But I can't yet do inverted circuit or inverted tail in hover (but I can do side on).
Inverted fast forward flight doesn't bother me either.

I nailed the inverted nose in hover on the sim. I just crashed and crashed and crashed with determination.