Specifications

With a fixed pitch heli, the throttle changes are not immmediate because the main rotor needs
to gain RPM. So, you will need to apply throttle early before you lose translational lift (about
halfway through the turn), otherwise the heli will lose some altitude when finishing the turn.
21.4. Backwards flight
"I always lead with the tail. As I watch the heli I'm keying off the tail, as far as I
know, and I steer along with the tail."
—Todd Bennett, Model Helicopter Technique #35
Backwards flight is tricky because it requires unlearning some of the reflexes learned for for-
ward flight. You will need to fly backwards by concentrating on the tail of the helicopter (not the
nose!), and the controls to slow down and speed up are reversed.
You will need to be very careful about letting the tail tilt too low, because it will hit the ground
and flip the helicopter over.
If you don't have a good heading hold gyro by this point, I highly recommend you buy one now.
Backwards flight is much more difficult without heading hold because the tail will have a strong
tendency to weathervane suddenly and flip around, which can cause you to lose orientation
and crash.
If you have a horizontal fin on your tail boom, you will want to remove it, because the fin will
pull the tail up or down during backwards flight and make level flight difficult.
You may want to perform the "fly between two points" exercise mentioned in the forward flight
section in a backwards orientation to become comfortable with backwards flight.
21.5. Banked backwards turns
Banked backwards turns are tricky because the cyclic does not follow the rudder...it is the op-
posite of the rudder. This requires a bit of explanation.
For forwards flight, a left turn consists of left rudder with LEFT cyclic, because the left side of
the helicopter faces the inside of the loop.
For backwards flight, a left turn consists of left rudder with RIGHT cyclic, because the right side
of the helicopter faces the inside of the loop.
There are two turns in two orientations, which results in four backward turns:
• Right turn where heli is tail-in relative to you (e.g. heli is traveling from your left to your right,
then makes a right turn towards you)
• Left turn where heli is tail-in relative to you (e.g. heli is traveling from your right to your left,
then makes a left turn towards you)
• Right turn where heli is nose-in relative to you (e.g. heli is traveling from your right to your
left, then makes a right turn away from you)
• Left turn where heli is nose-in relative to you (e.g. heli is traveling from your left to your
right, then makes a left turn away from you)
The potential for crashing is pretty high, so I highly recommend practicing these in a simulator
before trying them on your heli. I recommend learning the tail-in turns before the nose-in turns
Forward and Backward Flight
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