I'm making progress.

[Guest Lindy]

I was finally able to lift off a bit, gain a little altitude (a few hundred feet), actually maneuver in the direction I wanted to go and set down without crashing my chopper!! I feel I'm starting to get the hang of it a little. I made three successful lift offs, maneuver and landings at Canberra in Oz. But, gee, if you're not paying attention EVERY second, it really does get away from you, doesn't it? My last landing before ending my practice session, I wanted to see if I could actually get it back to the airport (which admittedly wasn't far away, but I WAS traveling in the opposite direction) and set it down somewhere close to a runway or apron. Well I did manage to set it down near an apron, after a close miss with a parked twin! It's quite a feeling of accomplishment to see some improvement. This is fun! -Lindy :-wave

[Guest Airprox]

Congratulations! :-beerchug Once you start getting the hang of landing where you intended, the rest should follow quite quickly, although, don't be put off if you things don't always go the way you intend!Alun :-rotor

[Guest]

When I was learning to fly helis, in Flight Sim 98, I when to London (London City Airport) and went for a scenic flight looking at all the landmarks. Tower Bridge, Tower of London, Houses of parliament and Buckingham Palace to name a few and landed as close as possible to the buildings to have a close look. I marvelled at the graphics. :-lol Hay I had two 12Mb Voodoo2

[Guest Lindy]

It was quite frustrating for a long time. Each attempt at landing ended up with the helo's nose in the dirt! :-lol And I'm learning with a Hughes500D, which I understand is NOT the easiest chopper to learn with.But yes, I'm having a blast with it. Really enjoy this chopper flying business. :-jumpy-Lindy :-wave :-rotor in training

[Guest]

I waited nearly 4 years to try the helo's out in FS... dumb, very dumb.I've been having a ball with the great add-on's I've found by reading this forum. They are actually flyable! (opposed the the default 206)Lately, and mabye it's just a phase (I doubt it :) ), but I've been flying the eggbeaters more than anything else!

[PeterR 9]

Congrats, Lindy! :-beerchugIt's great to see your progress and even better to hear that you're beginning to enjoy the fruits of your labor. Learning to fly a chopper is a lot of work and does require constant attention like trying to ride a unicycle (as opposed to flying a plane which is like riding a stable tricycle).Keep up the good work! Before you know it, you'll probably want to get certified at HoverSafe.

[Guest]

Indeed learning to fly a helicopter can be hard (ask me)the best you can do, before you get the knack of flying it with some bad habits, is go to the site of Hoversafe Academy, this is a bunch of guys who are real life as well as flightsim Plots and instructors.Get in touch with them and they take you trough the learning stages, along with lessons, corresponcence, ( you mail them a video of a flight and they comment on it, this is how your are graded and eventually awarded a cretificate. There are three grades to go throughand believe me, by the time you manage to pass the basic certificate requirements, you can certainly handle a chopper to a good degree.This is all free, so there is nothing to lose.At least on of the helicopter-only VA's only admits pilots who have certificates from HSA.Good luckDanny Levin

[Guest]

The important thing is that you are making some progress! And it will take some time to be able to do it properly, but well worth the effort in my opinion.I worked on US Army Helicopters when I was in the service and can tell you that Helicopter pilots NEVER stop working until the aircraft is ShutDown. I remember one particular pilot that told me when he started to fly at Ft. Rucker, Alabama he couldn't even keep the aircraft at a hover in a TEN acre field! He told me that it took him quite a while before he could really control the aircraft, and that was in an UH1H, which are a LOT easier than other types of Helicopters to control. To fly them properly takes Constant Concentration and Constant Adjustments to the Flight Controls to stay in control of the aircraft due to them being a inherently un-stable platform. I had the opportunity to fly the UH1H and the UH60 Full Motion Simulators when I was stationed in South Korea back in 91-93. Both handled very well, however the UH60 in MUCH, MUCH easier to control due to the fact that it has a Stability Computer. And I actually found myself hovering in about 1 hour. So that should tell you how easy it was!! As far as the UH1H, well, we didn't hover in that one, just flew around and practiced turns and traffic patterns, etc... It was an rare opportunity to get to do that, but my Commanding Officer needed to kill some flight time and he seemed to have a special liking for Engine Mechanics, so he took me and my partner (the only two engine mechs on the base) so we could experience the sims with him. I guess the point is to stick with it, use VERY CONTROLED, AND SMALL INPUTS from the cyclic, collective, and rudders (The CO said that it takes about 2-3 seconds for the aircraft to "settle in" from the inputs that you give, so it is really easy to over control an aircraft!!), and just keep practicing! After all, the REAL professional pilots take LOTS and LOTS of practice to be able to fly the way that we see them!Have FUN, and Fly SafeHooyaah!!Eric...