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UNDERSTANDING HELICOPTER FLIGHT AND CONTROL
Alright! Now its time to begin understanding how helicopters fly and what the control surfaces do. We have also added link photos that describe visually each of the controls and what they do when you apply the control inputs. For a more intense version of the information below, go to the Advanced Instruction page located in the Helicopter Flight Simulator page.
MAIN ROTOR
In order for the helo to lift off the ground, it must have a lifting force greater than its weight. The lifting force in the helicopter is generated by the large rotating blades of the main rotor. The shape of the blade is similar to that of the wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. Air flow across the wing, or blade, creates lift. Lift can be increased by either increasing the speed of the rotor or increasing the pitch of the blade. It is simpler to keep the RPM's of the rotor constant and change the pitch, or angle, of the blade. A slight upward tilt of the leading edge of all blades will considerably increase the amount of lift. There is a plate on the main rotor blade that collectively or at the same time, changes the pitch of the blades. The control is simply called the collective pitch lever. The collective control is located on the pilots left side of the seat. When the pilot pulls up on the collective it is increasing the pitch of all the blades.
In flight simulator terms, the collective is equal to the throttle on your joystick. Add throttle, you begin to create more lift. On FS helos, around 65-70% torque will begin to lift you off the tarmac. In the default Bell 206, you might have noticed you can hear the skids against the ground. You will see the collective control when you get to the link located in the cyclic section under controls.
TAIL ROTOR
The tail rotor is a smaller propeller mounted on the rear of the fuselage. The speed of the tail rotor is directly proportional to the speed of the main rotor. Thrust generated
by the tail rotor is what counteracts the torque generated by the main rotor. This keeps the helicopter from spinning around and around, out of control.
The pitch of the tail rotor blades are controlled by the pilot's foot pedals. You probably noticed in the FS helo if you don't add some rudder input, the helo tends to change its direction
to the left. The input you apply to the joystick is the same as what a pilot does with the foot pedals. You will notice that once you are flying forward in the helicopter, you have to increase the
rudder pressure in the FS helo to maintain your desired heading. In real helos, there is constant pedal pressure applied for the same reason. The foot pedals in helicopters are often called yaw pedals or
anti-torque pedals. In FS we call it rudder input. CYCLIC CONTROL
The cyclic control stick is equal to your joystick. This controls the helicopter's direction of flight. This is accomplished by adding additional pitch to selected portions of the rotating main rotor.
Increasing the pitch in one area will increase the lift in that portion, and the rotor disc will tilt. If the cyclic control
