Lesson 11: Fast Projected Circuits and Pre-Acrobatics
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You've made it to the last lesson of flight school. Congratulations! This is also the most fun of any lesson. Today you will be able to perform general / scale flying with the best of them, and you'll get a nice intro to Acrobatics! This lesson is a lot of fun. Ready?
Approximate Lesson Length: Greatly varies. This lesson isn't so much of a lesson as a stage in flying. Some never get into acrobatics (albeit very few), some stay in this stage for years before trying acrobatics, and some get in and out in a few weeks or less. Just fly at least until you are comfortable, and then practice whatever you want :)
Just a side note, the reason I have no pictures of myself flying for this lesson is because I lost my camera before I got to this lesson and haven't gotten a new one since. Or someone who wants to camera me while flying. Sorry :)
Approximate Lesson Length: Greatly varies. This lesson isn't so much of a lesson as a stage in flying. Some never get into acrobatics (albeit very few), some stay in this stage for years before trying acrobatics, and some get in and out in a few weeks or less. Just fly at least until you are comfortable, and then practice whatever you want :)
Just a side note, the reason I have no pictures of myself flying for this lesson is because I lost my camera before I got to this lesson and haven't gotten a new one since. Or someone who wants to camera me while flying. Sorry :)
Collective Prep
Get ready for collective control!
Yes, today you'll start flying with collective! So, you'll want to setup a new throttle and pitch curve for stunt (or idle up) mode. Note, you will want to set your travel adjustment to 100%, your low dual rate to 70%, and your high dual rate to 100% for elevator and aileron for this lesson.
I used a more beginner friendly acro pitch curve, with 12.5% at Low stick (remember 50% is zero pitch), 32.5% at 1/4, 52.5% at Mid Stick, 75% at 3/4, and 97.5% at High Stick. As far as throttle, I went with a V-Shape, with 97.5% at Low stick, 87.5% at 1/4, 80% at Mid Stick, 87.5% at 3/4, and 97.5% at High Stick. This will give you the power to perform stall turns and teach you how to fly on collective. That will be important to be comfortable with if you want to start flying loops, rolls, inverted, etc.
I used a more beginner friendly acro pitch curve, with 12.5% at Low stick (remember 50% is zero pitch), 32.5% at 1/4, 52.5% at Mid Stick, 75% at 3/4, and 97.5% at High Stick. As far as throttle, I went with a V-Shape, with 97.5% at Low stick, 87.5% at 1/4, 80% at Mid Stick, 87.5% at 3/4, and 97.5% at High Stick. This will give you the power to perform stall turns and teach you how to fly on collective. That will be important to be comfortable with if you want to start flying loops, rolls, inverted, etc.
Oval Circuits
Image coming soon!
Stand in Position 1, but with your back to the sun (so that you don't get blinded and crash). Take off from your helipad, then turn to the right and start moving at about 10mph so that you enter FFF (taking care not to hit the ground as you start moving; remember, tilting the helicopter always results in less lift - the amount of translational lift will directly affect how much the heli looses or potentially gains in altitude.) You will want to fly at about 20-40 feet up.
You will want to fly about 30ft to the right and about 5-10 feet away from you. When you get 30 feet away, bank turn to the left 180 Degrees and head back to the left. You want the radius of your banked turn to be about 5 feet. This will be some nose in flying; don't worry, Lesson 10 has prepared you for this. Fly 60 feet to the left (until you are 30 feet to the left of your helipad) and then bank to the left 180 degrees to send you flying back to the right. Repeat this exercise until you are comfortable with a projected circuit.
Basically what you are doing is flying a long skinny counterclockwise oval with length 60 feet and width 10 feet. And yes, this is a true projected circuit because you are always flying in front of you with the nose of the helicopter pointed in the direction of flight.
Now try flying the same circuit as above, but in the clockwise direction. This will cause you to fly nose in on the leftward stretch of the oval.
You will want to fly about 30ft to the right and about 5-10 feet away from you. When you get 30 feet away, bank turn to the left 180 Degrees and head back to the left. You want the radius of your banked turn to be about 5 feet. This will be some nose in flying; don't worry, Lesson 10 has prepared you for this. Fly 60 feet to the left (until you are 30 feet to the left of your helipad) and then bank to the left 180 degrees to send you flying back to the right. Repeat this exercise until you are comfortable with a projected circuit.
Basically what you are doing is flying a long skinny counterclockwise oval with length 60 feet and width 10 feet. And yes, this is a true projected circuit because you are always flying in front of you with the nose of the helicopter pointed in the direction of flight.
Now try flying the same circuit as above, but in the clockwise direction. This will cause you to fly nose in on the leftward stretch of the oval.
Parabola Flight
Image coming soon!
When you are doing great with your projected oval circuits, try a Parabola Flight Path. This is so named because, viewed from the side, this looks a bit like a parabola. Yes, this is not a true circuit because it is not circular. You fly this path more 2D than 3D. Rest assured, however, this is more difficult than the oval circuit.
Read this whole section before attempting to fly this.
Start off moving to the right fairly quickly at about 30-50 feet up (but in good view), then at about 30 feet to the right pull back on your cyclic a bit so that you kill your forward momentum. Pulling back on your cyclic means a tip backwards. However, as soon as you stop (or actually a little before), pirouette (or rapidly turn) 180 degrees back around to face to the left. Since you were tilted backwards when facing to the right, when you turn around you will be tilting forwards. Tilting forwards = forward acceleration, so you will begin to speed up to the left. Make sure that you do not drop below about 10 feet when you do this turn; use some backwards cyclic to decrease your tilt.
Head back to the left until you reach the other end of the path (30 feet to the left of your helipad). Then repeat the above, pulling back a bit to kill your forward movement and spinning 180 degrees around to speed up back to the right.
To keep this easy when you are first learning, make the angle you tilt backwards at each end of your flight path about 30 degrees. This will provide you with enough force to kill your momentum, but not so much that you will dive towards the earth (and probably crash at this stage). As far as which way you turn, that is up to you but I would recommend always in the same direction (but not always in the same direction each flight - for example sometimes always turn to the left, sometimes always to the right) so that you keep getting nose in practice.
What you have done is performed a mild stall turn. Practice this "30 Degree" Stall turn until you are comfortable with it and then increase the angle to, say, 45 degrees. This will make you stop a bit faster at each end; you will probably also need to pull back on your cyclic a bit more to come out of your 45 degree dive after the stall turn.
Now push the angle to 60 degrees. To accomplish this steep of a stall turn, you will need to go pretty fast (but stay above 20-30 feet up or you won't have enough time to pull out of your dive). You will also have to pull out of your dive with a more backwards cyclic for longer. Just a note, do not mess with your collective while performing a stall turn or you won't have enough cyclic control to pull out of your dive. If anything, you may want to increase your cyclic just a bit when pulling back. However, if you don't remember to increase your cyclic on this stall turn, that is okay.
Eventually you will work up to the point were you can do a full 90 Degree Stall turn, where for a brief moment your helicopter is pointing straight up. To come out of this stall turn, you will need to pull back on your cyclic a lot longer than in more gradual turns. In fact, you won't be able to pull out very much at all until you gain some forwards speed (and thus start creating lift). Remember to fly 25-50 feet in the air to avoid reaching the ground before you can pull out of your dive.
Read this whole section before attempting to fly this.
Start off moving to the right fairly quickly at about 30-50 feet up (but in good view), then at about 30 feet to the right pull back on your cyclic a bit so that you kill your forward momentum. Pulling back on your cyclic means a tip backwards. However, as soon as you stop (or actually a little before), pirouette (or rapidly turn) 180 degrees back around to face to the left. Since you were tilted backwards when facing to the right, when you turn around you will be tilting forwards. Tilting forwards = forward acceleration, so you will begin to speed up to the left. Make sure that you do not drop below about 10 feet when you do this turn; use some backwards cyclic to decrease your tilt.
Head back to the left until you reach the other end of the path (30 feet to the left of your helipad). Then repeat the above, pulling back a bit to kill your forward movement and spinning 180 degrees around to speed up back to the right.
To keep this easy when you are first learning, make the angle you tilt backwards at each end of your flight path about 30 degrees. This will provide you with enough force to kill your momentum, but not so much that you will dive towards the earth (and probably crash at this stage). As far as which way you turn, that is up to you but I would recommend always in the same direction (but not always in the same direction each flight - for example sometimes always turn to the left, sometimes always to the right) so that you keep getting nose in practice.
What you have done is performed a mild stall turn. Practice this "30 Degree" Stall turn until you are comfortable with it and then increase the angle to, say, 45 degrees. This will make you stop a bit faster at each end; you will probably also need to pull back on your cyclic a bit more to come out of your 45 degree dive after the stall turn.
Now push the angle to 60 degrees. To accomplish this steep of a stall turn, you will need to go pretty fast (but stay above 20-30 feet up or you won't have enough time to pull out of your dive). You will also have to pull out of your dive with a more backwards cyclic for longer. Just a note, do not mess with your collective while performing a stall turn or you won't have enough cyclic control to pull out of your dive. If anything, you may want to increase your cyclic just a bit when pulling back. However, if you don't remember to increase your cyclic on this stall turn, that is okay.
Eventually you will work up to the point were you can do a full 90 Degree Stall turn, where for a brief moment your helicopter is pointing straight up. To come out of this stall turn, you will need to pull back on your cyclic a lot longer than in more gradual turns. In fact, you won't be able to pull out very much at all until you gain some forwards speed (and thus start creating lift). Remember to fly 25-50 feet in the air to avoid reaching the ground before you can pull out of your dive.
On to Acrobatics . . .
Congratulations! You're an intermediate pilot!
Congratulations! You have successfully learned how to fly an RC Helicopter! You're amazing! Welcome into the elite corps of collective pitch pilots.
Once you can do 90 degree stall turns very well you can get into inverted flight, which opens up the whole wide world of acrobatics. Think about it, all you need to do to get inverted is to not turn around at the top of each stall turn and drop collective to negative. Then you are flying inverted! The large majority of other acrobatic "moves" in some way involve inverted flight.
But all that is for another day. Reflect on this day for a bit . . . and thanks for visiting Flight School!
Once you can do 90 degree stall turns very well you can get into inverted flight, which opens up the whole wide world of acrobatics. Think about it, all you need to do to get inverted is to not turn around at the top of each stall turn and drop collective to negative. Then you are flying inverted! The large majority of other acrobatic "moves" in some way involve inverted flight.
But all that is for another day. Reflect on this day for a bit . . . and thanks for visiting Flight School!