when you're spooled up sitting on the ground and you put in forward cyclic, does the front of the disc get closer to the nose or farther away? that action tips the disc down in front so it's closer to the nose. if you pull back on the cyclic the disc tips backward toward the tail, or away from the nose. irrespective of the helicopter's oreientation relative to the ground, forward cyclic will always bring the nose closer to the disc and aft cyclic will always move it away from the disc. what i should have said is that when the cyclic angle changes and moves the disc toward or away from the nose, the nose follows the disc. it's true that forward cyclic pushes the nose forward relative to the disc, but that's because the change in cyclic has moved the nose closer to the disc and it wants to regain its equilibrium so it tries to tip away from the disc (flips) until you neutralize your cyclic stick. this all sounds a lot more complicated than it is, but just learning what your nose is going to do relative to your disc is something i've found to be an effective way to orient the helicopter and recover during botched maneuvers. and i still crash on occasion just like everybody else who pushes the envelope.