darkwombat,

You hit the nail on the head. You have to be "one with the helicopter", you cant think, you just do. The second you start "thinking" ....wham.

You have to be three steps ahead of the heli all the time. If you have to "think" about what to do...its too late. That's why learning to fly heli's is so hard. No forgiveness. Second place is a garbage bag.

Here's some good stuff.

1. If the heli isnt flying right...DONT FLY IT. Land it, and fix it. If you dont...it will crash.
2. If you ignore rule 1, dont cry when it crashes.
3. Set-up is more important than piloting skill. A heli that is set-up right, can make a bad pilot look good and a good pilot look great. Just like a poor set-up can make a good pilot look bad.
4. Piloting skill only gets you so far. You have to learn how it works, and how to maintain it to be truly successful. Even the best pilots in the world cant fly a screwed up helicopter.
5. Just like the old swimming adage "Feet first, first time."..........Tail in, first time.
6. Babies learn to crawl before they walk. We have to learn to hover before we fly.
7.When upside down, down is up and up is down, and lest thee forget the ground come up and smite thee.
8. It took Sikorsky 39 years to get the first helicopter to fly, thank god it doesnt take that long to learn how to fly them.