5. Helicopter Flight
If you’ve only flown helicopters in video games before, you’ll find the
FlyInside Bell 47G a real challenge. You may want to start on Easy or
Medium, and work your way up as you become more comfortable.
The first thing that may surprise you is the lack of power. Although
piston helicopters can hover, they don’t normally hover, except close to
the ground during take-off and landing. You’ll almost never see them
climb straight up, and if they do it will be slow and laborious.
As such, be gentle on the collective, and once in a hover, gain a little
speed. As you gain speed the efficiency of the rotor disk increases, and
you’ll be able to climb.
Keep an eye on the Manifold Pressure gauge. There’s a redline, the
maximum engine power you can safely operate at. If you’re pulling
more power than this, you can cook the engine and experience in-flight
engine failure! If you see it getting too high, lower your collective and
climb slower.
Another thing that may surprise you is the lack of pedal authority. The
Bell 47 isn’t designed to quickly yaw left and right in a hover. It has
enough tail authority to hold a hover, and then gently pivot either
direction. If you’re climbing straight up, you’ll find it doesn’t even have
enough strength to turn to the left!
If you want to turn left, and the helicopter won’t let you, just lower the
collective to reduce the power needed.
The last thing to keep in mind, is that helicopters aren’t stable. If you tip
the nose forward, it won’t come back on its own. You’ll need to pull
back on the stick to pull the nose back up. In fact, different flight forces
will tilt the helicopter in different directions as you speed up and slow
down. You’ll need to constantly correct for this. Unlike an airplane, a
helicopter doesn’t want to stay in there on its own. You need to keep it
there.
