So I've been flying my CP for about a week now and getting pretty comfortable with tail-in hovering without training gear. Now I think I should start working on the side-in hover and was wondering the best way to go about it. Usually when I fly tail-in I have the nose pointing a little to the right, like 5 or 10 degrees- it just seems to fly better or maybe because I can see the nose better that way. So I guess I could just do that and slowly increase the angle, to 15 degrees, 30 degrees etc., until at some point I will be flying 90 degrees. Does this sound right? I have a limited space (about 8ft square) to fly in so that makes it tricky- if I get disoriented I risk crashing into my big screen TV or the display cabinet. ANyway, thoughts?

If you really want to learn to do it without crashing, then run through RADDS with it facing side in. Pretend it is the first time you've ever flown it, and you will learn.

I learned side-in by the method you described. I just gradually practiced hovering more and more toward side-in until I had it. In fact, I still am doing it now. I can do side-in, but it doesn't feel as 'natural' as tail-in yet. Still need more practice If you do it this way, you will likely have some crashes, so be warned...

I thought because I can fly a plane coming towards me with no problem I could do it with a heli thats hovering. Yah right. NOT easy at all. The plane reacts slower and I can bank it easily but the heli is so twitchy and reacts so quickly its easy to forget what way is what. I WAYYYYYY prefer to fly tail in lol I have lots of fun tail in hovering and FF and bank and fly back towards me. Just very slowly.
Even side in can go wrong quickly for me. I think Ill put training gear on like you when I try side in. If I ever do

Well I just had a very good flight- I was just hovering tail-in and the heli was flying great, better than it ever has, so I decided why not do some side-in, the tail was just staying right where I put it, I guess I was in the 'sweet spot' of the battery, so I slid the nose slowly around to the right, and there I was 90 degrees and just flying great- making minor adjustments but no problem- it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be so I stayed in that position for about 2 minutes before going back to tail-in. I think it was just that I got the heli flying real good now. So now if I can just keep it flying like this I will learn this maneuver and then on to nose-in! I really feel it is important for me to keep moving forward in my skills, not staying still, so I always have a goal for what I want to accomplish next.

Sounds good! Just be careful, though. I found that I could side-in easily when I first tried. Like you, I was surprised at how well I did right at first. However, I later found that even though I could do it, I was having to 'think' about it unlike tail-in, which is complete auto-pilot for me now...

You will probably find that if something goes wrong while you are side-in, you will react incorrectly when the 'panic moment' hits, and crash. That's what happened to me.

I'm at the point now where if I am tail-in, and something goes a little wrong or surprises me (unexpected gust of wind, etc.) , I can practically always 'save' it easily. It wasn't so with side-in because I just hadn't practiced it enough yet...

Anyway, sounds like you will have it in no time....