The Hover

Especially for the JetRanger, it's going to be absolutely necessary for you to be able to successfully hover during landings, take-offs, and taxi situations. Many new pilots find that hovering is the most challenging skill to master, and ultimately some may give up all together. The hover will require your dexterity and coordination, but is well within your grasp with a little practice...practice..practice.

Starting Position

Before we begin flying, let's put our JetRanger on the center line at the end of the runway. You can use the "y" slew mode to move your helicopter on the ground if need be. Once situated at the end of the runway, and aligned along the center stripe, complete your power up sequence. Your position should look something like this.




Resizing the Panel and setting Zoom

Unless you already have a favorite panel configuration and zoom rate, we suggest that you resize the panel as shown below so that the top of the panel is even with the horizon. This will help you keep an eye on the aircraft attitude when things get busy in the cockpit. Of course you'll need to shrink the panel from the right side as well, to keep it from being too wide and distorted. The next important setting is the zoom rate. The image below was taken with the view set to 50% zoom. 50% is a fairly wide angle view that will give you a good sense of peripheral vision without distorting the view. This can be set with the "+" and "-" keys, and the zoom factor will appear in the upper right hand of the cockpit view. If you find that your zoom setting doesn't stick after changing views with the "s" key, then try setting the zoom to 50%, then use your point-of-view hat on your joystick to look to the right or left. The zoom setting should be permanent for the remainder of your flight after that.



Feeling out the collective

Use the "w" key until you have an unobstructed view of the runway in front of you. That's right...no panel. Without using the cyclic or the anti-torque controls, begin to VERY slowly increase the collective (your throttle wheel, or slider). As you get close to 65% torque, you'll begin to notice your view starting to move and wobble as your helicopter lightens up and prepares to leave the ground. Use just the smallest increases and decreases in your collective to begin to get a feel for how your helicopter will react as you reach the point of lift off. Avoid taking off at this point. Now, if you find that your helicopter is already attempting to tip over, or spin around like a top, with no cyclic input, or pedal/twist input..your joystick may need to be recentered...or calibrated. See your owners manual if this is the case. For most pilots, you'll find that if your joystick worked for the fixed wing aircraft it will be ready to use for the helicopter basics as well.

Taking Off and Staying Level

In the next step we are going to use the collective increase to leave the ground up to about 5 or 10 feet, however we are going to make sure not to let our nose get below or above the horizon. The following image will help illustrate the safe zones for your attitude at this point. The green section is the safe section for your pitch attitude, as you let your nose get too high or too low (the yellow and red areas) you will begin to gain velocity in a forwards or backwards direction and will most likely lose control of the helicopter. So for pitch, keep the horizon exactly halfway on your screen, as shown. During this exercise we will also minimize any roll inputs. You should strive to keep your helicopter completely level, as if it were sitting on the flat ground.



Keeping the pitch level, and the roll level, begin to slowly increase the collective until you are producing 70-75% torque. At this point you should be climbing slowly straight up, and as long as you are not making any drastic cyclic inputs, everything should be fine at this point. We will be decreasing the collective slightly once we get up to about 10 feet, but don't let go of the collective...as you will need to CONSTANTLY make small adjustments while in the hover to keep the altitude steady. You should still be perfectly level, or at least practicing on keeping it that way. At this point, you might notice that your helicopter is beginning to spin to the right or left depending on how your twist grip or pedals are trimmed. If you have mastered keeping your helicopter level, and at 10ft altitude, then begin adding the anti-torque necessary to keep your helicopter pointed down the runway. Your first priority in this part of the lesson is keeping the helicopter level, no matter what.

Any time your helicopter is not level in the hover, it will begin to increase velocity in the direction it is tilted. This velocity MUST be counter-acted by tilting in the opposite direction for a similar period of time in order to become stationary again. Of course during all these changes in velocity, you will be required to continuously adjust the collective as you gain and lose altitude as a result of rotor-disc thrust angle changes. A good way for you to visualize this principle, is to balance a broomstick on your finger. As long as you keep the broomstick centered and balanced, it only takes small adjustments to keep it standing straight and happy. However, if you let it begin to fall to one side, you have to quickly make an opposite and movement with your finger to try and counter the tipping motion of the broomstick. The sensation of successfully hovering, is surprisingly similar to this trick.

Remember to stay level no matter what for this exercise, and to practice...practice...practice.

This part of training can take many hours of practice for helicopter pilots. Your hover should look something like this while you practice.



Back down to Earth

When you feel that you are successfully controlling your helicopter in a low altitude hover, its time to begin coming back down. While keeping your helicopter completely level, you will slowly begin decreasing the collective. You'll find lowering it, then increasing, in a step down fashion might be easier at first. This will help you avoid building up too much speed towards the ground. The important part is to feather the last few inches before you touch, this will definitely take you a little time and practice to master, because the ground proximity in FS2002/FS2004 can be tricky to judge at first. It is important when you land that you are level, and that you do not have remaining movement in any direction. You should be coming straight down in the last few inches. You might find it difficult to land on a precise spot at this point in your training. This will come with practice. Once you know you have positive contact with the ground, and successful touchdown, lower the collective completely.

Directional control in a hover

As we have already covered, any time your helicopter is not level in the hover it will begin to increase velocity in the direction it is tilted. At first, your priority was to correct this situation and return to level. However, as you master that skill, you can begin to experiment by slowly raising or lowering the nose and feeling for the velocity to increase in the appropriate direction. Using the cyclic to tilt the helicopter to either side will produce similar results. However, it is important to note that your helicopter is never more stable than when it is moving forward, so velocity directly to the rear or to the sides must be kept under limits (normal 8-10kts max) otherwise you will likely lose control and crash.



Summary

You should now understand the basic concepts behind a low altitude hover. This simple step in your helicopter pilot logbook will most likely take some serious practice to master. Expect to spend several hours just getting hovering covered. Your instructor pilot will expect you to demonstrate your ability to maintain a low altitude hover during future flight tests.

Apply what you have learned in this lesson and PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!