Helicopter are so much harder to fly than airplanes that helicopter pilots almost have contempt for fixed-wing pilots. Helos have next to no natural stability (if any at all) and require constant attention to avoid busting their blades.
Ironically, the bigger the helo, the easier it is to fly since it is larger, heavy, slow, and filled with artificial stability systems making it easier to fly! The smaller helos which are light and twitchy are actually the harder ones to fly!
Therefore, for your fist helo flight lesson, we will start you off in the big heavy helo to make it easy for you. Open the UH-60A Blackhawk for your first flights. This is a big heavy helo that has a nice solid feel.
A helicopter is in fact a marginally stable flying machine. The main rotor produces somewhat more lift than the weight of the helo, allowing the machine to take off vertically. To pitch or roll the helicopter the main rotor blades change pitch as they move around the rotor disc. This causes the rotor to put out more thrust on one side than the other, causing the ROTOR DISC to pitch or roll. Once the rotor disc has pitched or rolled, the lift from the disc pulls the helicopter along with it! This change in rotor blade pitch to maneuver is referred to as cyclic pitch. The cyclic pitch is controlled by the "cyclic" stick which is the main control for the helicopter and is equivalent to the stick or yoke of an airplane. To climb or descend, a helo increases or decreases the pitch of the rotor blades overall, not just when the blades are at one part of their path around the disc. This overall change in pitch is referred to as "collective pitch". This "collective" is physically set up like a side-mounted parking brake in a car: you pull it up to go up, you push it down to go down. The collective is somewhat analogous to the throttle in an airplane. But who controls the actual throttle? A computer! The computer in a real helicopter automatically manipulates the throttle to maintain operational RPM. In other words, the RPM will stay the same for the ENTIRE flight (say, 350 rpm) and the computer will vary the throttle to AUTOMATICALLY to hold that 350 rpm, no matter what sort of load you put on rotor system by pulling the collective. There is a catch though: If you force the rotor to a very high collective pitch by pulling up on the collective too much, then the engine might not have enough power to keep a constant rotor speed, even at full throttle! RPM will drop and you are in a rotor-underspeed situation that must be remedied! The cure is simple: lower the collective stick enough that the pitch on the blade lowers to the point that the engine can keep the rotor turning at the right speed.
Helo Basics:
Thrust-Master or CH-Products throttle quadrants act like the collective when you are flying helos in X-Plane. Throttle full forward is full flat (DOWN), collective. Ease the throttle back towards you to INCREASE the collective. The throttle handle is acting like a collective pitch grip in the helo, and the computer is actually controlling the engine throttle to maintain the correct RPM, which should stay the same for the entire flight.
Your rudder pedals, if you have them, act as anti-torque pedals, which simply increase or decrease the pitch on the tail rotor to yaw the helicopter left or right and counteract the torque of the engine.
The helo cockpit is smaller than that of airplanes. There is a piece of yarn tied to the base of the windshield that serves as a sideslip indicator. The throttle handle serves here as collective pitch grip and should be upward to keep the helo on the ground. Gently drag it down to take-off and learn to hover at low altitudes first. Watch your flight with the replay option in the View menu to see your crashes from the outside.
Flying the Helo:
Ok, let's go for a flight. The throttle slider should be full FORWARDS (or full UP on the instrument panel) corresponding to a fully-FLAT collective pitch. In this case, there is next to no lift being generated by the main rotor.
Now, EASE THE THROTTLE BACK TOWARDS YOU, OR EASE THE COLLECTIVE (gray knob) DOWN WITH THE MOUSE. This simulates pulling the collective BACK TOWARDS YOU with the mouse. As the collective increases, the lift from the rotor disc increases. At some point, the helo will rise.
Now, use the cyclic (joystick or yoke) to maneuver the helo. You are changing the cyclic pitch on the blades now, which puts out more lift on one side of the rotor disc than the other, which tilts the rotor disc, which drags the helo around to follow the disc in response.
Use the rudder pedals (or "anti-torque" pedals, in helo terminology) to adjust the pitch of the tail-rotor to yaw the ship around to the left or right. Once you can hold it on a hover under control, push the nose forwards to "lean" forwards and GO somewhere! Pull the nose back to slow or stop for landing.
You can find Aircraft Carriers, Oil Rigs, Frigates, (tossing in the waves) and building tops to land on, all in the location menu. We think that will keep you busy for a while!
