Helicopter exercises/drills you can do without a helicopter

[Kelly N.]

Here's an excercise you can do when watching tv...

 

Get a broom handle or equivalent and place it between the cushions on your couch so it looks like a collective. Practice the movements of the controls. When you pull up, start with the roll on of the throttle with a slight lead on the throttle, push left leg out (left pedal), pull right leg in. When you push down, do the opposite...roll off, push down, right pedal (left leg back, right leg forward).

 

 

Saw this posted in another thread that wasn't specifically about training drills and thought I'd start a topic specifically so people could discuss training drills for various skills (particularly ones that can be done without a helicopter, but anything related to helicopter pilot skills is good).

 

I'll start with this one (haven't tried it yet):

 

I heard in a recent ground school class that to practice hover cyclic control (small movements, fine motor control) you could fasten a small cut piece of 2x4 to the top of a broom-handle and then try to keep a golf ball centered on top of the 2x4 inside a slightly larger circle drawn on the top of the board. Not sure if this is going to be helpful, but I'm going to try. Anyone done this or something similar before?

 

 

Looking forward to others experiences and ideas. Hopefully, there will be some good stuff to hold me over until the wife lets me get a system for flight sim (never thought I would regret getting all laptops and no desktop systems - sheesh).

 

Thanks,

Kelly

[michaelking42]

Hi Kelly, haven't tried it but I've heard of it before. If I was to do it I'd use a paper plate so the ball would have less likelihood of falling off, and I'd try to find a rubber ball with no dimples on it as I think the dimples on a golf ball would prevent it from rolling around smoothly...I'm not a golfer so correct me if I'm wrong.

 

I bought MS Flight Sim 2004 for an older PC laptop, and XPlane for the mac. Xplane wasn't worth a piece of crap, but flight sim is a fantastic tool for many aspects of flight. I learned to hover with that - the R22 is not an easy aircraft to master with that program, and it certainly helped when I was learning last year. I'm sure FS2004 would work on your system unless it's from the 90s....I would think it would be more rewarding, also.

 

The alternative is to stand on a basketball and juggle.

[FLHooker]

Kelly,

 

 

I have used that method that you are talking about. It's all about muscle memory. I didn't, however, use a broomstick. I just sat in my computer chair, like a complete dork, and went up with the collective, left pedal, and aft with the cylic... and opposite OVER AND OVER AND OVER. Very soon it became natural that when my left arm went up, right hand went aft and my left foot went forward...

 

 

It works.

 

 

You can even go further, and 'chairfly' a pattern, all the way from picking it up to an unstabilized hover, taking off, pattern, and landing... talking through it and going thru the control motions. This gets the student to think about what is happening, what needs to happen, and what they are lacking.

 

Hope this helps,

 

 

CHAD

[HeloJunkie]

Kelly,

 

 

I have used that method that you are talking about. It's all about muscle memory. I didn't, however, use a broomstick. I just sat in my computer chair, like a complete dork, and went up with the collective, left pedal, and aft with the cylic... and opposite OVER AND OVER AND OVER. Very soon it became natural that when my left arm went up, right hand went aft and my left foot went forward...

 

 

It works.

 

 

You can even go further, and 'chairfly' a pattern, all the way from picking it up to an unstabilized hover, taking off, pattern, and landing... talking through it and going thru the control motions. This gets the student to think about what is happening, what needs to happen, and what they are lacking.

 

Hope this helps,

 

 

CHAD

 

Wow - that was more like trying to pat my head and rub my belly at the same time. I guess I really never stopped to think about it too much while in the 300! But sitting here in my computer chair, I feel like a dork since it took concentration to get it right!!

 

Great idea!

[Kelly N.]

Hi Kelly, haven't tried it but I've heard of it before. If I was to do it I'd use a paper plate so the ball would have less likelihood of falling off, and I'd try to find a rubber ball with no dimples on it as I think the dimples on a golf ball would prevent it from rolling around smoothly...I'm not a golfer so correct me if I'm wrong.

 

I bought MS Flight Sim 2004 for an older PC laptop, and XPlane for the mac. Xplane wasn't worth a piece of crap, but flight sim is a fantastic tool for many aspects of flight. I learned to hover with that - the R22 is not an easy aircraft to master with that program, and it certainly helped when I was learning last year. I'm sure FS2004 would work on your system unless it's from the 90s....I would think it would be more rewarding, also.

 

The alternative is to stand on a basketball and juggle.

 

 

My desktop is definitely from the 90's Plus, I already got the wife to agree to let me get a system specifically for flight sim (going to get the saiteck controls and the CH Pro pedals - I had already pretty much decided on MS flight sim so you're opinion of the program vs. x-plane makes me feel better about that).

 

As for the golf ball dimples, I was actually thinking that something to slow the roll a slight amount might be a good thing so that the movement is a bit delayed from the input (sort of like the real thing). That way I get used to waiting for the change instead of moving more and ending up having to make a big move back when the copter gets moving and eventually losing it. I'll try with multiple balls and see what works best.

 

Thanks for the advice/input!

 

Kelly

[Kelly N.]

Kelly,

 

 

I have used that method that you are talking about. It's all about muscle memory. I didn't, however, use a broomstick. I just sat in my computer chair, like a complete dork, and went up with the collective, left pedal, and aft with the cylic... and opposite OVER AND OVER AND OVER. Very soon it became natural that when my left arm went up, right hand went aft and my left foot went forward...

 

 

It works.

 

 

You can even go further, and 'chairfly' a pattern, all the way from picking it up to an unstabilized hover, taking off, pattern, and landing... talking through it and going thru the control motions. This gets the student to think about what is happening, what needs to happen, and what they are lacking.

 

Hope this helps,

 

 

CHAD

 

That's a good idea (taking it past just the motions to visualizing and executing control movements from T/O through hover and patter/approach/hover). I'll try that a few times before my next flight and see if it helps.

 

Thanks for the good advice!

Kelly

[tattooed]

The alternative is to stand on a basketball and juggle.

 

You forgot to mention you need to GREASE UP the basketball before standing on it.

 

A dry basketball would be to easy.

 

 

Sorry, I like to add realism.

[delorean]

I've seen the broom stick and marble/ball thing before. Pretty realistic since you have slow the marble down and have the stick centered as reaches the spot. Never got to try it though.

 

For instrument training, my instructor made me learn how to juggle since encouraged a good scan and hand-eye coordination.

 

The little ball-in-a-cup game isn't bad either for more hand-eye coordination.

 

MS Flight sim is a great tool for learning instrument procedures. Let the autopilot fly it, just get procedures (radio tuning, dial turning, and all the other "6 T's" and such) in sync.

[Spierman]

Great advice/techniques! I tried a couple of them over the recent breaks in my training to see if they were worth passing to my future students. I think "talking through" maneuvers is exponentially helpful, whether or not physical props/devices are used. But, there is definite benefit to using props.

 

Thanks for the great advice!