Improving piloting skills, keeping orientation etc.

[ovdt]

Hey guys,

I bought AeroSIM RC for improving my piloting skills but I get bored of it. I'm not having any fun with AeroSim.

I have a CC powered quad, I try to fly it indoors. And when it's not windy, I fly outside.

I think I have 10-12 hours of flying experience right now. I know it's not that much but I'm still having problem controlling the craft when the nose of the craft points me or 90 degrees to me. I still get confused. I try to think myself on the craft but it doesn't help

How long did it take for you to control the craft comfortably, when the nose of the craft is pointing at you? 30 hours, 100 hours? How frequently do you practice?

 

[Droider]

ovdt

Get one of these http://www.rcpitstop.co.uk/e-flite-blade-mcx2-bnf-micro-helicopter---eflh2480-1432-p.asp

This is my preferred sim! You can crash and crash and its fine. 5 bat packs and the 4 pack charger means you have continuos flight. When the weather is good and I just want to fly I have a 10 acre patch of scrub land I fly over. I usually fly this school https://sites.google.com/site/mkokto2/training/flght-training for a couple of packs when the wind is calm.

I also practice nose in with my ADX3 by sticking it at about 10m PH/ AH on and just do it that way, if you mess up just let go of the sticks then start again.. I have over 60 hours now on my ADX and still I practice. Nowt comes to them that dont practice!

Dave

 

[jes1111]

It may seem odd me offering advice here since I have not yet flown a multirotor, but I have been learning/practising on a sim.

Many years ago I was taught high speed riving by the UK police force. One of the very useful techniques they teach is "talking", literally speaking out loud everything you're doing, everything you're seeing and everything you're going to do next. I believe fighter pilots often employ a similar technique. You have to overcome the feeling that people will think you're mad - but it works!

The benefits seem to come from a greatly enhanced sense of concentration, or "focus", and the fact that it gives your brain a few extra microseconds to formulate the next action and "sanity check" it before it's implemented.

Nose-in flying is certainly very tricky. I was getting it wrong on the sim until I started trying this technique. Now, instead of letting my brain instinctively push the stick the wrong way, the very act of saying (out loud) "...roll left..." makes my thumb push the stick left.

You quickly develop a limited vocabulary that adequately describes all the moves you are making. Stringing the words/phrases together and staying "ahead of the action" becomes easier with some practice. So a sequence might go something like:

"...following the tree line... trees are on my right... line is tightening... trees are on my right... going to roll left... rolling left... gently... straighten now..." and so on.

It doesn't work so well to say it "silently", inside your head. And just muttering it under your breath doesn't work well either. You've got to formulate the words and say them out aloud and clearly.

Try it!

 

[FlyEYE]

You basically have to train yourself that you are controlling it as if you looking out of it, but of coarse you are looking at it. Once you brain gets this progress is quick. I find as long as the copter is moving no problem, as soon as it's stationary I sometimes forget. I've learned on Helis and that took a long time, mainly since any crash grounds you unlike with a multicopter.

 

[RTRyder]

Three things that worked for me learning nose-in, first get a cheap but sturdy quad that can take abuse, it will get plenty of that before everything clicks. Second, when it's facing you nose-in remember to "follow" it with the stick, so if it starts moving to the right then move the alieron stick to the right. With nose-in everything is exactly backwards from tail-in which is usually what everyone starts with probably because that's how you start off with helis. Third and most importantly, practice, practice, and more practice, even if its nothing more than mastering circles in both directions in the backyard every evening with your beater quad. Stick time builds muscle memory and once you get confortable with something new and practice it a lot you'll find yourself calmly recovering in situations that would have been catastrophic before and not even thinking about it. Oh yes, don't try and cheat by using a flight controller with autoleveling, it will only act as a crutch and delay the learning process, get a cheap KK board and learn to keep it level with the controls, not with an accelerometer.

Once I got nose-in down on a Gaui 330X I found it to actually be easier than tail-in, I think a large part of learning unfamiliar orientations is the comfort factor, once you mentally don't give a S**t about the quad you're flying you're more likely to take risks trying new things and learn a lot more a lot faster, that was a big thing that held me back when flying helis, the cost associated with getting it wrong and crashing. Once I started pushing the envelope with a quad that I knew could take a fairly hard bump into the ground the pace that I picked up new things increased dramatically. At first you'll find yourself crashing a LOT, but if you doggedly keep trying the same thing you'll find you start crashing less and less until all of a sudden the light bulb clicks on and you've mastered it. Just make sure to practice over grass and have spare props on hand that's likely to be the one item you'll go through a lot of but its well worth the cost if the practice time saves the big expensive camera ship from a costly oops.

Ken

 

[gadgetkeith]

hi there ovdt

i know you keep hearing the same sort of thing from people but dont give up on the sim

if you get bored just try some fun stuff ere and there but keep returning every now and then to what you want to master nose in and left and right side towards you

some people just seem to click quicker than others

but it will take a bit of time to master

i bet when you first started you realy had to think hard and concentrate just to hover

now i bet that is just second nature

same will come with nose in etc one day you will just do it without even thinking about it

just take your time and have fun with it

i started with a t-rex 450 which is not that big realy everybody kept saying you would find it much easier with a bigger heli but bigger = more expense so i just stuck with it and the sim 2 of them realy reflex xtr and phoenix so i had loads of different models and scenes and eventualy you just get better and better

hope this helps

keith

 

[Kilby]

ovdt... go to this site and check out the flight school. It's set up for single rotor helis, but the same principles apply. If you follow the step by step that he puts together, you should be good to go in 10 days. Each day focus's on a different skill that you need to learn and it's a great way to get it ingrained into your mind.

http://www.rchelicopterfun.com/how-to-fly-rc-helicopters.html

 

[Jake Bullit]

Many years ago I was taught high speed riving by the UK police force. One of the very useful techniques they teach is "talking", literally speaking out loud everything you're doing, everything you're seeing and everything you're going to do next. I believe fighter pilots often employ a similar technique. You have to overcome the feeling that people will think you're mad - but it works!

"Trees on left..trees still on left... trees on left getting BIGGER...trees still on left....
sh*T,bast*rd...copter in bits,bast*rd ,tw*t!!!"

That type of thing?

 

[ovdt]

Thank you guys. I'm going to try different methods that you mentioned. I ordered a KK board with small motors/props. I'm going to try that first.

And I'll start the circle ruitines that Kilby mentioned.

One thing I was doing unintentionally was talking while flying the copter. After Jes told, I realized that it's really helping.

I'm going to write my experiences while doing these exercises and will let you know what helped me to learn nose-in flying.

 

[jes1111]

Yep! And then on the long, sad drive home: "The trees were on my left! My left!"