Fly your helicopter in open areas outdoors away from people and property such as
buildings and cars. When learning to hover, the best flying sites are clean, smooth
paved surfaces. While not as soft as grass, paved surfaces allow the model to skid
around without leaving the ground. A drawback of paved surfaces is the abundance
of abrasive grit kicked up by the rotor wash that can be ingested by your helicopter
engine and ground into the gears. If you sweep a small area clean with a broom your
helicopter will stay cleaner and last longer.
After mastering the basics of hovering flight, take off from concrete and fly over long
grass. Long grass is much more forgiving than concrete for the occasional
unintended landing.
Training Gear
Use training gear while learning to hover. Training gear consists of two light wooden
dowel rods attached to the landing gear of your helicopter as shown in Fig. 6-2.
Training gear helps prevent tip-overs, and also slows down control response. Cross
two 5/16" x 24" (8mm x 61cm) wood rods to form an “X”, and attach these rods with
rubber bands or nylon ties to the base of each landing gear strut. Glue Ping-Pong
balls to the ends of the rods with thick CA glue to prevent the dowels from catching on
the ground.
(OTRAINGR)
Note:
If the rods are too long or too heavy your helicopter will appear unstable in flight
because heavy rods tend to swing under the fuselage on the thin wire landing gear. If
this happens, reduce the size or length of the rods.
Op er a tor's Guide
Learning to Fly
6-2
LITE MA CHINES
Figure 6-2.
