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Helicopter Flying – Flight Simulation Challenge!.

Helicopter flying have you only ever flown fixed wing aircraft? Then I believe you need to challenge yourself by getting some rotary wing time in your logbook. Helicopter flying is akin to sitting on a beach ball balancing on a piece of wood while tapping your head and rubbing your tummy. Unlike fixed wing flying in your flight simulator all axises are active all the time in helicopters and combine to create some interesting flight movements not possible in a conventional aircraft. 

Coordinated flight is a term you hear a lot of in helicopter flying so before we go headlong into jumping into the helicopter and its controls lets understand this term quickly.

When you turn a corner in an aircraft or go around the corner in the car you feel the force pushing you sideways in the seat. This is what we try to prevent when maneuvering an aircraft or helicopter. Why? Because if we are not coordinated flight we create drag which costs us performance which is slower speeds in a straight line or turn and consequently more fuel burnt. 

The other important factor is it tends to make passengers motion sick if we don’t fly coordinated, so its for their and our own comfort. We have a gauge call a slip gauge that shows us if we are coordinated or not. It’s a little ball in a glass tube. If we are doing a great job it will be centered, if not it will be left or right of the center. 

Controls – Cyclic For Control.

The controls in helicopter flying are very different from your friendly Cessna 172 flights. The joystick or cyclic enables you to go forward, backward as well as sideways and any combination at the same time. The Cyclic stick moves the rotors by tilting them, so they push the air or use the lift on parts of the blade to move your direction and plane of movement. 

This is your primary directional control but its always used in conjunction with throttle, collective and rudders to create smooth coordinated flight.

Collective & Throttle Up /Down & Power.

The collective and engine throttle are located on a control lever next to the left seat. It’s a lot like the operation of a hand brake in most cars. You use your left hand to pull it upward or push it down so you can increase or decrease the pitch like a propeller control in a traditional aircraft.  This will make the helicopter rise from the ground and climb at a rate relevant to the amount you pull it up or descend by lowering the arm in combination with the amount of power and torque available.  

Throttle The Twist Grip.

Throttle is located on a twist grip also on the collective control. Turning this like a motorbike throttle it rotates around and increases power from the engine. You need to use more power as you pull the collective up but as always being cautious you do not over torque the engine and break it. This will likely be fatal. 

It’s important you use the collective and throttle in combination to control your assent/decent rates plus your speed. Again, in co-ordination with the cyclic control to make smooth positive control inputs. Yes, you will be juggling cyclic as you move collective and throttle plus rudder all at once. Does this sound like a challenge now? Yes, It’s a real balancing act.

Rudder Pedals – Dancing to Keep Straight.

These control your yaw as they do in an aircraft but if your hovering, they will allow you to pivot 360 degrees while maintaining the hover as well as maintain coordinated flight as you fly straight and turn. As you fly the helicopter you will as you do in a fixed wing aircraft you will have to counter the torque from the rotating disk or blades as you move through the air.

Flying Controls in X Plane 11/12

Flying with Single Joystick is OK!

Simulator pilots use many and varied configurations to fly aircraft in their favorites sim or sims. We all have a few don’t we. You will find helicopter flying in all simulators generally. X Plane 11 as well as Prepar3d and FSX all have helicopters available plus if you’re into combat then Digital Combat Simulator or DCS also has a range of helicopters and more.

The simplest control is probably a single joystick with Keyboard and mouse. Let’s look at this simplest combination and how you can get into the air fast.

The Collective and throttle are the first controls to look at. On a joystick I have found the throttle lever needs to be fully forward! This equates to the collective being fully down. With a gentle pull back, the collective lever will rise, the rotor will increase in pitch and you will see the aircraft start to rise from the ground. 

1. Now you can hover but your going to be busy. In X Plane the throttle seems to be linked to this so you don’t need to concentrate on it. You will see the torque rise on the torque gauge, but we will look at this latter. Keep away from exceeding limits marked on the gauges. If you can get a few feet off the runway try and stay, there in the hover.

2. The next control is the joystick or cyclic control. Once you have risen from the ground, slowly! As you test the controls you will see that you can combine all the controls to do amazing things. You can move the joystick and you will move in different directions.
3. Push forward and you will move forward.
   2. Move right or left and you will move this way as well.
   3. Pull the cyclic back and yes you can go backwards.
4. The rudders control your tail rotor which is a set of blades mounted vertically. These can turn you right or left once you are in the air. TWIST your joystick to get the rudders working. When flying forward and or turning monitor your turn/slip indicator or the ball to keep the ball in the middle of the tube. You will then be coordinated in flight. Try to remain coordinated as you fly around. Its just good airmanship.

Flying Your Chopper.

Once you’re able to hover you will likely want to transition into forward flight to go somewhere as well as slow down to hover and land once again.

Once in the hover slowly push the cyclic stick forward and you will start to move forward. As you move you may need to add a little collective and rudder to remain straight. Once your flying turn left and right by moving the cyclic to turn adding rudder as needed to maintain coordinated flight.

Landing is a Balancing Act!

To slow the aircraft, its not as simple as just lowering the collective or power. You will lose lift and fall from the sky. To slow down you will need to raise the nose in co-ordination with lowering the collective leaver to slow but maintain altitude. You can manage decent by adjusting the collective lever or your throttle leaver on your joystick or HOTAS throttle if you have one. You then can move into very slow flight and land or commit to a full hover and lower yourself gently by managing the collective lever to lower yourself to the ground.

Conclusion

I hope this short guide has helped you to understand the basics of helicopter flying and you have many exiting and probably stressful hours saving the world, picking up troops, flying close support missions in your Huey.

Author.

Brendon McAliece is a multi lingual-expat who brings over three decades of flight simulator/PC building experience as well as over two decades of real world jet fighter experience as a weapons/egress technician. He holds a sport pilot certificate giving him real world flying experience. Hi travels have taken him from Europe to the Middle East, Asia and his home of Australia. He has a passion for travel, languages, Flight simulation as well as Guitaring and Coffee. You can read more in his blogs below.

Learn more @ DreamingGuitar.com – DreamingCoffee.com – LetsFlyVFR.com

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