well I guess I've spent around 20hrs on the sim total so far doing basic flight... hover,FF, and so on. after I had my heli checked out and test flown I put on the FMA co-pilot, waste of money IMHO. I TRIED to fly about 10 tanks worth of fuel with the co-pilot fighting me all the way in FF and helping me but at the same time hurting me in hover. when I ripped off the co-pilot and finally hovered on my own it just came easy... just like the sim only add LOT's of pucker factor
after around 3 tanks it felt MUCH better and almost natural... a few more tanks I had tail in and side in feeling like I'd been doing it for years. the following weekend I started FF
what a freaking BLAST, the first few flight's were a bit shaky getting back into hover but not to bad... I never felt out of control... just not in control as much as I would like... if that makes any sense. today I came close to finishing my second gallon of fuel... FF is getting much easier as is transition back into hover... and hover is just plain easy now. next is getting up the nerve for nose in hover[
] I know the control movements by heart... that's not my problem... on the sim it's DAM hard for me to see the small movements of the heil when looking right at the nose... then it starts to get a little out of shape I bring it back and do the same thing again[:@] I just can't seem to "lock in" like I can tail in and side in... if I cheat a bit and get some angle on the heli I'm fine
until I can get better nose in on the sim I'm leaving nose in alone in the real world
oh well... over all I'm THRILLED to have made it this far without any damage to my heli... I can't same the same when I started flying fixed wing years ago
best advice I have for ya is try to relax and just CONTROL the heil, if you keep it in a 6 foot circle ALL the time your in control IMHO... steady "locked in" hover will come just take your time. one more thing... if your out of trim just a few clicks it makes it that much harder to keep the locked in hover... you have to work that much harder to keep the heli in one place, also you may be a bit sensitive on the sticks... you could try a little EXPO... I use 20% on ail and ele.
John