Video: I show you how NOT to land a helicopter.

[Chris_Doane]

So I setup and in-cockpit video camera during today's flight lesson.

The last two lessons, we'd been working towards me taking over more of the controls. There are three main controls in a helicopter you have to be working...sometimes all at once. The cyclic (stick in your right hand,) the collective (lever in your left hand) and the pedals under each foot. The collective also has a twist grip throttle control on the handle.

A landing approach is one situation where you need to be adjusting all 3 controls at once. Today was the first day I was doing all the work on the cyclic, the pedals, and as much of the collective as I could manage. Kinda hard for a newbie with 5 flight hours logged.

Things were going pretty well....until they weren't.

[67impss]

Pretty good for 5hrs of seat time!

After your description of what was going on I've got a new respect for copter jockeys.

BTW do or have you used a flight sim and how does it compare to a copter?

I find at least WRT Cessna 172/182 it was spot on & hope that the glider is as I fly it damn well if I say so myself I do OK in the real Cessna with about 10 real seat time.

[Chris_Doane]

Pretty good for 5hrs of seat time!

After your description of what was going on I've got a new respect for copter jockeys.

BTW do or have you used a flight sim and how does it compare to a copter?

I find at least WRT Cessna 172/182 it was spot on & hope that the glider is as I fly it damn well if I say so myself I do OK in the real Cessna with about 10 real seat time.

Thanks

While it was a nasty screw up, my instructor said he was more impressed that I was able to recover it. So I felt like an idiot, and sort of good, at the same time.

I haven't used any flight sims. I'm not sure anyone even makes "real" helicopter controls for a desktop computer sim.

[67impss]

Yeah I was impressed at your recovery looked like you had a lot more seat time. As far as controls IDK been broke for 6+ years

[SAmadei]

When I first saw the subject, I thought it was going to be video of that chopper going down in the water near NYC.

I haven't used any flight sims. I'm not sure anyone even makes "real" helicopter controls for a desktop computer sim.

Grand Theft Auto has all the helicopter flying sim in it for my needs...

[Chris_Doane]

When I first saw the subject, I thought it was going to be video of that chopper going down in the water near NYC.

Sounds like that guy had a tail rotor failure on take off. Probably means the tail boom struck something.

[GMTruckGuy74]

Good job with the recovery. Your text comments were great! Why no video of you landing it/cut out the camera? I think you're doing a great job with only 5 hours experience.

Back when I was in 7_th or 8_th grade ('87 or '88), we had to go to the Career Center and study potential careers we wanted. At that time my dad had a friend at the local Air National Guard building that was a helicopter pilot and that career intrigued me enough that I studied up on it. That was until I realized my poor eyesight would prevent me from going into this field Now watching your video I don't know if I ever had the coordination needed to do this job!

I give you a lot of credit for following through on your dreams. Off topic, do you mind me asking how old you are?

[Chris_Doane]

Good job with the recovery. Your text comments were great! Why no video of you landing it/cut out the camera? I think you're doing a great job with only 5 hours experience.

Back when I was in 7_th or 8_th grade ('87 or '88), we had to go to the Career Center and study potential careers we wanted. At that time my dad had a friend at the local Air National Guard building that was a helicopter pilot and that career intrigued me enough that I studied up on it. That was until I realized my poor eyesight would prevent me from going into this field Now watching your video I don't know if I ever had the coordination needed to do this job!

I give you a lot of credit for following through on your dreams. Off topic, do you mind me asking how old you are?

Thanks. We don't touch down while running the pattern just yet. I attempt to bring it to a stop over the helipad at about a 5ft hover, and then we depart for another go-around from there. Ha, the other reason is, we haven't really started the part where I try to do the actual landing. You've got to have hovering down pretty well before you try and actually set it down. It's same story with taking off. I know it seems like it would be easy, but hovering is probably the hardest thing to learn. A lot of has to do with where you look.

When you're trying to bring it to a hover, initially, instinct would have you looking down at the ground right in front/below you, but that's exactly what you DON'T want to do. What you want to do is have your eyes way out on the horizon. That's what I'm trying to fight through right now. When you see me bucking in that video, it's because my eyes have gone down. When I recovered, I basically forced myself to lock onto that tan hanger in the distance, and things got back under control pretty quickly. Your hands follow your eyes, so if you look down, you're going to screw up the cyclic (stick in your right hand.)

The other big thing is that, with most activities, your balance point is under you...like when you ride a bike. In a helicopter, your balance point is the rotor disk above your head. That's pretty hard to get used to.

I'm 32.