First flight

[Kelly N.]

In fact I hold the cyclic with 2 fingers, collective with 2 fingers...lighter is always better !!

 

 

I initially was holding the cyclic and collective with fingers (a self-made attempt to quit overcontrolling on both). However, my instructor told me to grip both with my full hand.

 

For the cyclic it really made a difference. I had much more stable control and didn't make as many small movements after doing so (I related it to a golf swing in my own mind, since I was using the bigger muscles of the arm, it seemed like I had more control). On the collective, it didn't really make that much difference. I still tend to overcontrol and have a habit of moving from hand to fingers grip as the flight goes on.

 

For pedals, they're my trouble spot right now. I did wear lighter shoes last time and that seemed to help. My big struggle on pedals is getting the hang of not really having to put hardly any pressure on the right one. I tend to push to hard and then have to go too hard left to correct and end up chasing my own inputs.

 

One thing my CFI had me do was hover taxi using only the left pedal (foot was off the right one). It was a definite eye-opener in that, right pedal pressure wasn't really necessary at all to get a good, straight hover-taxi. It was just less pressure on the left pedal when I needed to turn back right.

 

Kelly