As you get comfortable, climb an additional five feet and repeat the process. Do this until the helicopter gets to around 50 feet or so. Once you can do this, move on to the figure eights!

Figure Eights

Lesson objectives

Begin basic forward flight.
Become used to the rudder controls.
Consolidate looking at the helicopter from side on.
Identify the relationship between the cyclic and collective controls.
Explore the usage of cyclic to make turns.
Learn how to flare the helicopter to a stop.
Learning figure eights is a popular way to begin forward flight, and learn different orientations (such as nose in). It's how I progressed from hovering, and I recommend it to beginners. Figure eights begin as slow hovers between two points, and can end up as as full speed banked-right-up-on-the-rotor-tips maneuvers. Full speed figure eights are endless amounts of fun no matter how good you are!

Anyway, lets get back to grass roots. Wander out to your helipad and pick two points about 4 meters either side of your landing spot. You're gonna start hovering between these spots to start with.

Hovering Eights

Go get your helicopter and lift off into a hover. Then slowly start moving the helicopter to the right-most spot. Once it's over that spot, give it opposite cyclic so it starts moving towards the left-most spot. The objective here is to make the helicopter move smoothly between the two points without losing, or gaining too much altitude and staying pretty much on the flight path. Keep doing this until you can sustain a consistent flight path.

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