Specifications

Chapter 19. Side-In and Nose-In Hovering Orientations
The next step after tail-in hovering is side-in hovering. There are two orientations for side-in
hovering: left-in and right-in hovering where the left side and the right side of the helicopter are
facing you,respectively.
You should make sure your tail-in hovering is fairly solid before attempting side-in hovering.
You will turn the heli back to the tail-in orientation if you start to lose control, so make sure your
tail-in hovering is very solid before attempting this.
Tail-in hovering is easiest if the learning process is divided into two steps:
• Translating into side-in
• Turning into side-in
Translating into side-in is easier than turning into side-in, and should be practiced first.
19.1. To translate into a left side-in hover
Assuming you are facing north, set the heli down about 15 ft in front of you and lift into a tail-in
hover. Now move the heli east about 15 ft. This is a 45 degree side-in hover. Once you are
comfortable with this hovering position, you should move the heli south about 15 ft so the heli
is 15 ft east of you.
Turn to face the heli.
Once you are comfortable with this, you should practice turning into a side-in hover.
19.2. To turn into a left side-in hover
Lift off into a tail-in hover, then use the rudder to turn the heli to a left side-in orientation. You
should turn very slowly to avoid losing orientation, and increase the turn rate as your profi-
ciency improves.
Once you can hover both left-in and right-in hovering, you should increase practice more on
the weaker orientation to strengthen it. This is very important to avoid developing "handed-
ness" in orientation. After left-in and right-in hovering, you might choose to learn nose-in hover-
ing. Some people say this is "very difficult" but really it's just another orientation to learn. If
you've learned three orientations, you might as well learn the fourth before you go on to the
next part.
It's probably okay to remove the training gear after you are fairly comfortable with side-in hov-
ering or nose-in hovering. The removal of the training gear will change the flight characteristics
of the helicopter and make it more sensitive to stick input, so this will require some mental ad-
justment. After you have removed the training gear, you should hover at about 3ft to eye level.
I would recommend spending at least two months learning each hovering orientation to ensure
you are very comfortable with each orientation. When you can hover entire packs with each
orientation and feel reasonably in control of the heli, you are probably ready to progress to the
next stage.
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