Hi, I have a question regarding the usefulness of mastering sideway and nose in hover.

I understand it's definately required to be able to hover a heli nose in or from the side. But must we attain the same kind of proficiency as in regular nose out hover?

Nose out hover is the basic hover we all learn first. I pretty much mastered that.

Right now I'm practicing sideway hover and I thought I was pretty good already (on the sim) but when I took out the heli today for a try I broke the blade (no other damage, thankfully). I was being too close to the ground so it didn't give me enough chance to recover. I also got nervous and that's a factor behind the crash.

So my question is, is it really useful to hover a heli close to the ground from a nose in or side way perspective? This is because when we do autos or land, we can always change the heli into the nose out position. I see people at my field do autos and they always adjust the nose when they flair and land.

Obviously, we must learn to CONTROL the heli from a sideway or nose in perspective. But is it necessary to be able to HOVER it at a stand still?