The BIG one and it looks so cool!

Three weeks ago, mid August 2005, Andy said “I’ll buddy you through inverted hovering”. My response was “OK”.

This is something I’ve done on the sim but not for a while. In fact, over the summer I’ve not been on the sim at all. Having said that, what I’d found on the sim, was it’s easier to do it nose in. Reason, the aerilon cyclics work the same as normal tail in hovering, down is up and left rudder is right, but apart from that……Less to think about.

So, here’s how I did it for the first time on the buddy lead, but so long as you have height you’ll be OK.

First, you need to have your flips down and good. The best and safest way to get into a nose in inverted position is with a forward flip. Reason, as you come out of the flip the nose is likely to be high, which means the heli will be going away from you. For the first couple of attempts all I did was flip inverted and climb away because I’d over applied negative pitch! This is the way to go because as you are gaining altitude you’re increasing your margin for error.

Next, is to manage the cyclic on the climb out and get a feel for the heli upside down! Guess what, if you’ve done it on the sim, it’s NO different for real!

After several attempts I found you need to do the forward flip quite slowly. I found the best way is to push the cyclic forward, as the heli goes vertical, zero pitch, and as it goes inverted apply negative pitch carefully. You should now be in a reasonably stationary hover!

But, DON’T wait until things go pear shaped! Hold the hover for a few seconds and recover. Recovery is lots of negative pitch and UP elevator. Keep having a go and you’ll find it gets easier each time.

Andy buddied me through two tanks separated by a week. After the second tank, I was on my own for the first time, and managed to hold a hover for about twenty seconds before bailing out.

Now it’s down to practice, practice, practice!