ORIGINAL: BarracudaHockey
Buy a sim and some training sticks. That thing doesn't replicate real world behavior that well anyways, it was called a Roto Pod.
I had a RotoPod ... I don't understand this. You say use traing sticks ... but the RotoPod was just a souped up stick platform.
I do know that I could configure my RotoPod two ways. One with the legs staight out from the teflon puck and one where the legs angled down. Straight out, the legs were no different than the "training sticks" you suggest except the "training sticks" produced 4 legs when X'd under the heli. The Rotopod had 5 legs.
With the legs angled down, this supported the heli off the ground and allow the heli to articulate a little in cyclic and YAW and remain on the ground. It was great for determine your t/r config without taking flight.
Rotopod trainer (shown with legs angled down) ... thanks Heliproz:
I believe the stand that is poo'd over is the whiteman stand. It looked something like this:
