Learning to fly a Helicopter

The following article will help you understand the basics of flying non-fixed wing aircraft in FS2002. I remember clearly trying to master the FS98 model years ago and it really did frustrate me at the time. Getting her to lift is no problem it's that darn spin I went into every time I got some air! As with all aspects of flying practice makes perfect and the more you fly the easier it gets. I would recommend learning in a different helicopter for a few reasons. Firstly, the flight dynamics may be a little easier to master and you really do need all the instruments of a a "full cockpit" (see below)

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The Microsoft helicopter model is quite an accurate simulation of the real thing. For that very reason you may want to try another model and then progress to the Bell 206.

This tutorial is more of a response to the overwhelming requests we receive for Operation Anaconda and other mission scenery. The missions require a lot from you in terms of mastering the flight dynamics and airspeed. We'll try to take you from beginning to end of a successful mission. As a virtual helicopter pilot for the Allied Forces you'll fly in some pretty rugged terrain, and the techniques described here can make your job a little easier. This guide was developed as an aid for pilots flying the operation Anaconda missions and focuses more on tough rocky mountainous terrain and unsupportive ground.

An overview
A helicopter creates lift in a different way. Where a fixed wing aircraft has to be moving to produce lift by the "plane" or angle of attack on the wing, a helicopter achieves it by manipulating the main rotor blades, changing the angle at which they meet the air and subsequently the angle of attack. The drawback with this setup is the need for torque control with a tail rotor, which bleeds power from the engine every time it's used. That becomes a factor when you start getting into advanced maneuvers. One of my favorite tricks is a "loop de loop" hmmmm you say, well it never really actually fully loops but it looks cool and that's the point! The trick I learned was to give all the power to the rotors she can safely take to start your upturn and when you are loosing airspeed on the "loop" cut power and go for the downswing. On your way down re-apply power and you should be able to regain control.

Terms
The collective control is the lever to the left of your seat mounted on the cabin floor. Moving the collective up or down is what creates pitch change in the rotor blades, causing you to climb or descend. Microsoft suggests using the throttle wheel or lever on your joystick to do this, but that doesn't give you the level of control you get using the keyboard keys (F1, F2 etc..) If you prefer a joystick control for power that's fine too, although it'll make my suggested setup harder to use.

The cyclic control is the actual "stick." It tilts the main rotor assembly through 360 degrees, allowing forward, backward and sideways flight. When the cyclic is centered I'll refer to that as the neutral position.

Airspeed
Controlled with pitch - While maintaining altitude, move the cyclic to change the airspeed. This requires a little coordination, similar to the throttle and yoke in a fixed wing. In level flight you increase collective/move the cyclic forward to speed up, reduce collective/pull the cyclic back to slow down. As you approach your desired speed, you have to adjust the collective to maintain it. It's a good idea to practice since you'll do this every time you take off or land.

Altitude
Controlled with power - Pull the collective up to increase climb rate, lower it to increase descent rate. This is combined with cyclic movements to produce constant speed climbs and descents or level flight. While at cruise altitude and power, any minor altitude adjustments can be made with the cyclic only.

Behavior
Helicopters are highly sensitive to input and very responsive. Slight pressures are required to master the finer techniques in hovering and landing.

Most helicopters have no form of adjustable trim. For example, if you pitch down when leveling off from a climb, the aircraft will continue descending unless you make an opposite cyclic input from the neutral position. Once you've leveled out, you need another input to take out that correction. This characteristic applies to forward, backward and sideways flight, and on a smaller scale in a hover.

Performance in any "mode" will be more responsive to input. Whereas a fixed wing may become sluggish and hard to control at slow airspeeds a chopper stays just as responsive if not more so.

Power reductions require some attention. The main rotor blades are your only means of creating lift, so if you drop the collective completely there's nothing holding you up, even though the throttle is wide open. All helicopter pilots are taught to "glide" the helicopter with little or no power to the ground. A little known fact (much like those seeds that fall off trees- "twirlybirds" I think kids call them) is that a helicopter will still "fly" or glide by the simple fact that the blades will spin on the way down. The landing may be hard but as you will see not impossible.

Winds and turbulence play a large role in how you control and master the dynamics. Much as a fixed wing takes off in the direction of wind so too should your chopper.

One of the things that remain constant in fixed and non-fixed wing aircraft is that in a turn you loose altitude and go nose down without correction. This doesn't apply to "side" stepping in a hover.

Settings
When flying the helicopter, disable the force feedback on your joystick if it has that feature. A helicopter doesn't have the stick forces that a fixed wing aircraft does and they shouldn't be enabled.

This increases your level of control tremendously. Some people actually remove the springs inside the joystick, although I don't go quite that far. What's left when you disable feedback forces is a fairly good simulation of real stick sensitivity. Two problems you can't overcome are the mechanical friction left in the joystick, and its unsupported weight. This can make some of your flying seem "jerky," but after all this is a simulator. A computer joystick can't duplicate the smooth hydraulics of the real thing but with these adjustments, it's close.

A set of rudder pedals is the best control method, but if you can't afford that here's a good substitute. Try using the twist function on the joystick for rudder control during initial takeoff, landing or hover, but also have rudder control assigned to some handy keys. This lets you make more subtle tail rotor inputs once you're established in forward flight. If your joystick doesn't have a twist function you're probably already using some keys.

These sensitivity and realism settings are adjusted for FS2002 based on what we've seen in the real 206. Set the joystick aileron, elevator and throttle to full sensitive / zero null zone. Set rudder sensitivity to 95% of the slider scale, zero null zone. FS2002 will leave these where you set them when you shut it down. If you decide to use the rudder keyboard assignments mentioned above, remember to make a corresponding adjustment to rudder sensitivity under the "Keyboard" tab in FS too, after you set the "Joystick" sensitivity.

With FS2002, moving the realism sliders to just under 100% ("Hard"). In the Flight Model box under Aircraft Realism, push the sliders all the way up, then back them off by two mouse clicks. For the most part it has to be said that 100% is a tiny bit closer to real performance.

For helicopters in Flight Simulator, you have to make subtle control allowances. The fact is you're not using hands and feet and vision together as closely as you can in the real thing. Your joystick is an electric control and doesn't have the balanced stability of a real hydraulic cyclic. So although FS2002 is an excellent piece of software, the helicopter control responses aren't exact, they're "a very close simulation."

The last thing about settings, it's been said that enabling "auto-rudder" will greatly increase response and reduce those wild "spins" people find themselves so often going into.

Takeoff
1) Adding power. Ease the collective up to 30% torque using the F3 key with the AH-64 increase to about 35-36%, then shift your focus from the panel to the horizon. From this point it's a good idea to keep your view outside until you're established in forward flight. Push forward ever so slightly and gently once. Now you can continue adding power 37-38%. Make sure that your not drifting (best practice is to center off the stick before takeoff).Try to divide your attention between close objects and the horizon, so you get indications (movement cues) for both drift and attitude. From a low hover here you normally just apply some forward pressure to the cyclic and start to accelerate. If you want to just hover keep the power at around 36-35% and ease back a bit(don't pull up!) just apply a gentle pressure back until no forward motion is noticeable.

That's all fine and dandy in open spaces like an airport but isn't always practical in the "hotzones" where a speedy exit is the safest one! A safe way out of confined spaces is a climbing hover. You'll want begin to hover in the same way as above but add no forward momentum if obstacles are present. If things are too tight straight up works too, it just presents more of a risk if the engine cuts out or you've got dangerous wind conditions. Increase power to 40 torque to climb sharply until any obstacles pass below the nose. As that happens, use the tail rotor(by default on my keyboard "0" on the numpad and "Enter" on the numpad)to slowly (don't center off immediately) turn into the wind and push the nose down to start forward flight. If you turn quickly you'll need more collective - the tail rotor is bleeding power from the main blades when you do this. Taking off on a steep or angled incline(LZ 3) I believe makes the climbing hover a must!

Gently
The largest error made by new chopper pilots is to "over-control". That means making control movements that are out of proportion to the corrections required. It's common in the beginning and keeping corrections small but immediate is important. Cyclic and tail rotor movements affect each other and precision is impossible if you're heavy-handed. So before adding collective, the cyclic should be in the neutral position. Otherwise you'll start moving the second you leave the ground. If you lift off with things centered you can devote more attention to heading and drift. You're less likely to have to make big hazardous corrections.

Climbs and descents
Over airports and flat ground you won't go wrong using the numbers in the FS Aircraft Book. Climbs and descents over rough terrain generally don't work with those speeds - out of necessity they tend to be slower, and climbs tend to be steeper. There are a few things to watch in a steep climb. Try to maintain at least 15-20 knots indicated airspeed. Depending on the altitude, slowing to zero in a climb can result in an unplanned descent, and below 20 knots speed bleeds off quickly. Add collective carefully and don't exceed the limit of the yellow "max continuous power" range on the torque gauge.

Approaches
One of the keys to a good approach is maintaining visual contact with your landing area. It's impossible(hmmm..) to adjust your descent rate correctly if you lose sight of it. Sometimes this means turning the nose slightly with the tail rotor to keep things in view. For me it's a question of knowing the bird so well that you can just judge with one look at the airfield what the approach will be like. I can then loose sight of it and still land in a square that I imagined .5 km away and at 500ft. That comes with practice and you can see alot of the approaches with the dynamic helicopters are slightly different. Garreth and I both practice our approach skills constantly within the sceneries.

Think of the approach as you might in a fixed wing by imagining a glideslope and a touch point that you want to arrive at.

Landing
I hear again and again that taking off is easy, it's the hovering and landing that I can't get. The FS Manual or aircraft book does a great job of walking you through landings from the pattern ("circuit" here in Canada). Once you've got a handle on that you're equipped with the practical skills to land anywhere. But what if you are also concentrating on avoiding enemy fire! The difference in operations flying is that you have to pick your own reference points. We've tried to make points that don't look all the same so that you can get a visual que at anytime during approach. It's also about your knowledge of terrain and where most likely an attack may come from.

Approaches in the zone are the opposite of airport landings. Maintaining target speeds becomes the most important factor. The type of terrain is also important, but secondary. Below is a sequence of Garreth approaching LZ3 "The tip" There are some corresponding images you can refer to. Every approach is a little different and you may have to alter things accordingly.

1) Plan on being at about 200-500ft. above ground or obstacles .5km from the landing area. Try to gauge your rate of descent by a reference on the ground(if possible I know some of the terrain can all look the same.) If you reach this target altitude early, hold it until you reach about .2km from the landing area. With your first couple of tries remember to keep an eye on your airspeed. it's very common for pilot in training to overshoot the LZ.

Click images for larger view

2) Slow to 40 knots 35-37% at about .2km from the LZ and begin to slowly descend. Things will start to happen fast. Check your descent rate. It's very important that you don't let your vertical speed get past 300' per minute - adjust power as required. Obstacles permitting, you want to be roughly as high above ground as the width of the rotor blades when you arrive at the edge of the landing area. As you get closer and closer to the edge, gradually slow to 30, then 20. You may loose sight of the LZ briefly while bringing the nose up to bleed off some of that airspeed. Whether you're descending or not while doing this, you'll still have to carefully coordinate pitch and power. Next to hovering, that's probably the biggest challenge of the approach. In the following pics I'm using a tree as a reference.

Click images for larger view

3) As you cross the edge of the landing area, you should be leveling off and continuing to slow below 10 knots. You may have to reduce power slightly and bring the nose up to do that. Watch the ground to ensure you remain moving forward as you drift into position. When the exact spot you want to land on appears to slide beneath the nose, you'll be in a good position to reduce collective. Make sure your parking brake is armed.

Click images for larger view

4) Ease the cyclic back to bleed off any remaining momentum, then ease it forward again to level the attitude indicator when all forward movement stops. At the same time if the rate of descent is too much add some collective. Now it's just a matter of keeping an eye on drift and getting the wheels to make contact with the ground. Keep your rate of descent as low as possible. Have the Parking brake armed and reduce all power.

Click images for larger view

Okay, so are you ready for Afghanistan? We have a new mission for Operation Anaconda that will test your new skills!
Check it out >> here