Specifications

• When the helicopter tilts, you will hear a scraping sound, because the edge of the hula-
hoop (or a ping-pong ball) will drag along the asphalt (or carpet). Pay attention to this
sound, because it indicates your helicopter is tilted.
• Watch the disk of the main rotor blades as they spin. Try to keep the circle level, because
when the circle is level, your heli is level.
• When the helicopter moves left, you should push the joystick right to halt the movement,
then when the helicopter has stopped moving you need to nudge the joystick left to level
the helicopter. Same for the other three directions.
So, to stop a heli from moving in direction x requires two small stick movements. This re-
quires a while to learn properly.
• The helicopter may have a constant tendency to move in one direction, and you may need
to apply some trim to counteract this.
Note that it will still be impossible to perfectly trim the helicopter at this stage since you are
hovering in ground effect.
• Try to avoid "overcontrolling" the helicopter. You want to use small, delicate stick move-
ments to gracefully correct the movement. It takes a while to develop this delicate, smooth
touch. Be patient with yourself.
• Try to keep the helicopter within a 10 foot circle, and try to keep it level.
• At some point, you will start to hover longer and longer periods without an edge of the train-
ing gear touching the pavement. This may require 5-10 battery charges or more.
• When you become more comfortable with the controls, you should gradually increase the
altitude until you are hovering at about waist level (for micro helis) or eye level (for nonmi-
cro helis)
• Congrats. You're tail-in hovering. :)
• When you can hold the heli within about a 5 ft circle, you should practice hovering with the
heli slightly to the left of you or slightly to the right of you (in about the 10 o'clock position
and 2 o'clock position) to prepare for the next section.
Tail-In Hovering
130