How to fly a Helicopter

[Jet_Leader1]

Hello !

                 I am James and I need great help to fly a helicopter.Let's say I am at 4000 ft and I want to stay at that altitude and stay at that location,how do I make that move? How do I land because if I cut throttle,the chopper drops like a stone.If you can help,please please do.Thanks !

                                         James

[Smoke2much]

There is an excellent helicopter tutorial in the help section on this site (somewhere)  It is for FS2000 but it all applies to fs2k2.  With helicopters you have to be even more gentle than with fixed wing.  Make small control movements and thottle setting changes.

I am still trying to fly the damned things (with little success) after 18 months.  With practice it is possible to take off and land just about anywhere.  I have found the best way of learning is to start at an airport out in the sticks and just practice taking off and landing.  When you can land successfully then start trying to hover.  

Best of luck

Will

[OTTOL]

Persistance above all, but I found that the Jet Ranger on the
FS2002 program is harder to fly than some of the Helicopters
I have downloaded from SimViation. I've had the best luck with the Hughes 500. The file is MD 500 Snow. This one should make your life a little easier.

[ozzy72]

Go to the links page from the front page here and you'll find a couple. I learnt with the hoversafe academy, you'll find a couple of their instructors fly here too. Look out for Cal, he is the man!
But for a simple technique, increase the throttle and nose down to gain forward speed. To stop, lessen the throttle gently and pull back on the stick to nose up. You'll loose speed. Then just before you stop (or end up going backwards) get the nose level again and balance the throttle so you are hovering.

Ozzy

[Fozzer]

....But for a simple technique, increase the throttle and nose down to gain forward speed. To stop, lessen the throttle gently and pull back on the stick to nose up. You'll loose speed. Then just before you stop (or end up going backwards) get the nose level again and balance the throttle so you are hovering.

Ozzy

Hi Ozzy...!
I noticed the description "Simple Technique"...
The is no such thing as a "simple technique" regarding flying a flippin' helicopter... ...!
Helicopters go round and round in ever decreasing circles until they finally...well, you know the rest... ...!
I have been pratting around with this for years now, and I am NEVER going to master it...!
...try as I might...
Now you know why I stick firmly to Cessna 150's, you know, those things with "wings", like a bird, to keep you up in the air.... ...!
...sorry James...
You may get there one day....I'm afraid I wont... ...!
LOL...LOL...LOL...!

Cheers... ...!
Paul...fed-up with going round and round for ever... ...!
(England)
LOL...!

[ozzy72]

Ah, you should have watched Airwolf and Blue Thunder Fozzer, you'd have learnt much
That is where my first passion for helicopters really sprang from... That and an incredible flight in a JetRanger through downtown New York as a kid, literally between the buildings That was awesome. It takes a little practice is all.

Mark

[packercolinl]

There is a file "Helicoptersmade easier" here I think that has helped me and also if you are using the default 206 go to FS2002 Helicopters Page 1 and get the resized panel available. Between those two you should start to get a handle on it!

[hikariken]

to me It take very log time I just be able to take of and to land on an ruway but like an aircraft. nut now I can do some very low altitude fly (at the altitude I can fly you can't raise your gear down because it will touch before it is out. lol) but I keep practicing taking off and landing. but the jetranger is the worset helicopter i have seen in FS2002. the best I though is the daulphin from "Antti Pankkonen " (page 14 of Fs2002 helicopter on simviation) he'is difficult to intall but really easy to fly if you are smouth with the command. I will told you for training you will make good to take some eurocpter (squirell dauphin) or big helicos because they are less instable than little.
and if you want to training you have some lesson in FS98 (old yes but it is the last with helicos lesson )

[Fozzer]

The only helicopter I have ever been able to fly is the one in "Longbow" and "Longbow2"...
....with cheat mode turned on so that nosing down to increase speed doesn't mean diving into the bleedin' ground...LOL...!

It's a shame that real helicopters don't have a similar "over-ride switch", so that it is possible to increase/ decrease speed without changing altitude... ...!
(ie: collective is increased/decreased automatically with a change in cyclic control)..
A sort of "cruise control"... ...!
..It would save all this pushing/pulling/tugging/two handed, business, all at the same time... ...!
...know what I mean...?

I'm all for the simple things in life... ...!
LOL...LOL...LOL...!

Cheers all...
Paul....collective, ....in a cyclic sort of way... ...!
(England)

[fisharno]

..It would save all this pushing/pulling/tugging/two handed, business, all at the same time... ...!
...know what I mean...?

I have to agree with Fozzer on this one. With both hands, (and feet), occupied, there's very little else a chopper pilot can do execpt fly the thing. (Put's a dent in your "Mile High Club" activities, too!  ;D

If you really want a first person singular trip through the in's and out's of helos, find a copy of the movie "Firebirds" with Nicolas Cage and Tommy Lee Jones.

That'll get your cyclic collective, boy!!

[Fozzer]

If you really want a first person singular trip through the in's and out's of helos, find a copy of the movie "Firebirds" with Nicolas Cage and Tommy Lee Jones.

That'll get your cyclic collective, boy!!

Hi Fish... ...!
..that'll probably be the film where Rifleman is controlling his helicopter models... ....!
LOL...!

It's a buggar when you have got your right hand on the cyclic stick, your left hand on the collective lever and you have to get the co-pilot to pick your nose, or scratch your forehead for you... ...!
....give me a Cessna 150, any day... ...!
LOL...LOL...LOL...!

Cheers mate... ...!
Paul....I love things with wings... ...!
(England).

[packercolinl]

I got to the stage with the default thing where I could hover,move left and right and land then gave up as too hard.
Then I saw the local news chopper flying a cameraman to cover a fly-in for CoF. I'm sure the P#*^%(PILOT) deliberately put on a show to upstage the fixed wing stuff. Anyway it was impressive flying control,enough to have me eyeing those Heli files again.

[fisharno]

My taste is definitly toward fixed wings. But, like OTTOL I thought the MD 500 is way easy to fly, but it's still hard to hover and land decently.

I think that what makes it so hard is that you don't have that "sense of touch" to go on when you're sitting at your desk. Your Inner Ear can't tell your brain what's actually happening with the machine. And a monitor doesn't give you enough information, because you have no perifreal (spelling?) vision to help you detect laterial movement.

The sim guys that have mastered it, I know, have put in long hours practicing. And, mo' power to ya!