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Now that you have completed the
Basic Ground Exercises section, lets try to hover!
Place the helicopter 5 foot in
front of you with the tail pointing towards you, or the
nose away from you.
Now bring the helicopter up to
speed just like you did in the previous lesson.
Now when you have it stable on
the ground, give it a little more throttle/collective.
Now the helicopter will begin to lift off the ground,
and continue to rise. When the helicopter gets about 1
foot off the ground, lower the throttle/collective just
enough to cause it to stay stationary.
Try your hardest to keep the
helicopter in one spot. I know that this will be very
difficult at first, but stick with it. Once you have had
the helicopter in the air for 30 seconds or so, lower
the throttle/collective and set the helicopter back onto
the ground.
Now think about what has
happened, why it has happened, and what you did right
and wrong while hovering the helicopter.
Now that you have digested some
of the actions of the helicopter, and you know somewhat
how it is going to react to your input while in a hover,
give it another try.
Again rev the engine up slowly
and bring it to about 1 foot off the ground. Hold the
helicopter there as long as you can this time. It is ok
if the helicopter goes forward, right, left, or back.
Just bring it back to the
original starting point.
In the beginning bringing the
helicopter back to the starting point is going to be
very difficult. Do not get discouraged. Practice will
make perfect. Soon the helicopter will not even move off
the point that you lifted off from.
Once you get fairly good in a 1
foot hover, increase the throttle/collective to bring
the helicopter to a 3-4 foot hover. You will notice that
it becomes easier to control at the higher altitude.
This is because your helicopter
is no longer in ground effect. Before in your 1 foot
hover, if your flying area was on the slightest slant,
you would have noticed that your helicopter wanted to
float right down the slant. About 3 1/2 foot, this
ground effect is not existent.
Keep practicing your hovering
until you can keep the helicopter in one spot for a full
tank of fuel. I know this is going to take some time,
and you wish to move on, but it is important to master
the hover before moving on to other manoeuvres.
Remember that a
helicopter flight begins and ends with a hover!
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