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UNDERSTANDING RC HELICOPTER CONTROLS AND THEORY 101.“Oh-No, THEORY and rc helicopter controls” I hear some of you saying. “THEORY” – I thought this was suppose to be “fun”! Yes this will be fun - I promise. I am not going to put you to sleep with an in-depth aeronautical engineering course. If you want that kind of information – you won’t find it here. If you are looking for a more advanced and in depth explanation of the theory behind how helicopters fly, I highly recommend this book. It is technical but well worth the read if you have a passion for helicopters like I do. My goal is to give you enough information to understand why a RC helicopter can fly in the first place and how we control it. You must first understand these basic principles before you can learn to fly a RC helicopter... it's that simple. Yes, now comes one of those times that your high school physics teacher warned you about. You know the old “one day, this information will come in handy” statement to make some attempt to keep us all awake. Didn’t work for me – how about you? So how will I keep you awake this time around? First, we are talking about something real here – your RC helicopter that you just spent a significant amount of time and money on. I think you will want to understand how it flies and how RC helicopter controls work – right? Second, this really is neat stuff - it is another reason this hobby is so rewarding.
To make this as simple and basic as possible, I have broken helicopter flight down into three very basic areas:
Like I said, this is pretty basic stuff, but you need to know it. Now let’s look at two other areas of helicopter flight theory that are a bit more advanced. By understanding the first three, these two will make more sense. They are not crucial to understand, but it is nice to know they exist and how they affect the RC helicopter controls.
So how did I do? Did I put you to sleep? Just remember, helicopters take time. If it doesn’t all make sense now, don’t worry. Come back to the explanation in a few hours or a few days and re-read it. Everything is more clear the second time around or as many times as you need. Still a little confused? Here’s a little trick that I use all the time... Simply visualize what is going on while your helicopter is flying. Unlike RC planes or cars, RC helicopter controls seem a bit abstract. You now know how a helicopter flies and how to control it. Visualize yourself in a nice solid hover. What happens if the heli starts drifting to the right? What control input do you give and what is happening on the helicopter to achieve the result from that control input? If you can think and visualize what your helicopter is doing before you even begin learning to fly, you will have a big advantage over others who learn by feel alone. Who said there was anything wrong with day dreaming. Have fun with the process.
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