Howto:Fly a helicopter: Difference between revisions

Helicopters have a flight control stick called ''collective''. If you increase the collective you will rotate one way, so you need to increase the tail rotor speed so you don't spin the helicopter. You can use rudder pedals or a twisting joystick for this. Helicopters control the RPM by themselves in FG, but not in real life. You're recommended to read the rest of the article if you don't understand this.

== Preface ==

'''First:''' in principle everything that applies to real helicopters, applies also to [[FlightGear]]. Fundamental maneuvers are well described on: http://www.cybercom.net/~copters/pilot/maneuvers.html Some details are simplified in FlightGear, in particular the engine handling and some overstresses are not simulated or are without any consequence. In FlightGear it is (up to now) not possible to damage a helicopter in flight.

Since the release of version 0.9.10 some improvements have been made to the [[helicopter]] flight model and therefore version 1.0.0 or the CVS version should be used. With these improvements the helicopter flight model of FlightGear should be quite realistic. The only exceptions are “vortex ring conditions”. These occur if you descend too fast and perpendicularly (without forward speed). The heli can get into its own rotor downwash causing the lift to be substantially reduced. Recovering from this condition is possible only at higher altitudes. On the Internet you can find a video of a Seaking helicopter, which got into this condition during a flight demonstration and touched down so hard afterwards that it was completely destroyed.

For all Flightgear helicopters the parameters are not completely optimized and thus the performance data between model and original can deviate slightly.  On the hardware side I recommend the use of a “good” [[joystick]]. A joystick without springs is recommended because it will not center by itself.  You can have this by modifying (removing the spring) from a normal joystick, or by using a force feedback joystick, with a disconnected voltage supply. Further, the joystick should have a “thrust controller” (throttle). For controlling the tail rotor you should have pedals or at least a twistable joystick, keyboard would be the hard way. ('''hint:''' Flightgear supports more than one joystick attached at the same time.)

If using a mouse it's recommended to turn off the Auto-coordination in the [[FlightGear Wizard]].