Flight School Part 2 - Sideways/Forward/Backward Flight

Figure 2.1 - Moving around 6 different spots to practice your hover

Hover Positions
This lesson be done together with Part 1. As you get good at your hover right in front of you, you may slowly move your heli sideways and get it to the other 5 practice hover positions. Take about 3 to 5 seconds to move it from one position to another and pause at each position for 3 to 5 seconds. Isn't it exciting? Your heli's actually getting to places now! Ok... it's not much, but it's a start!

Figure 2.1 shows a anti-clockwise progression, but if you prefer you may start clockwise first. Don't forget to practice both anti-clockwise and clockwise progressions though!

It's All About Perspective
You'll notice as you move your heli towards your sides and keep the nose pointing at the same direction, your perspective of the heli will change, you'll start seeing the sides of your heli more. You might even say that a nose out hover gets closer to the look of a a nose right hover as you move your heli towards your left side. Take a look at Figure 2.1 again, notice you'll start to see more of your heli sides at the left and right-most positions?

The Tail Rotor Thrust Issue
You'll find that your heli feels different when going anti-clockwise and clockwise. That's because your tail rotor is fighting torque in one direction - the Thrust the tail rotor makes pushes your heli towards it's left side at all times, you'll have to bank more in order to get the same movement towards it's right side.

The Drill
Once you get through the progressions good, you should try it with the nose out, nose left and nose right! Take your time and get comfortable with each orientation. Remember, the less your rush through here, the faster your learning curve will be when we get to more advanced 3D flying later!

What You Get
Congrats once you have gotten this lesson nailed. You would have done a little sideways flight (when the nose is facing in or out), and even some forward and backwards flight! (When the nose is facing right or left) You may even have gotten creative (and some extra fun!) and change nose orientations as you go through the positions. Remember to have fun and take a break once it gets less fun and move towards frustration.

What's Next
I'm tempted to get started on flips and inverted hovers right away, but I believe the next best step should be some circuits around the field! Now it's really getting nice! The next lesson will make your heli fly around like a real heli! Come back soon for Part 3 - Flying Circuits!