"Heli-Chair" wrote in message
oups.com...
i went and flew an R22 today. the helicopter was parked on a trailer,
so the instructor insisted on doing the initial lift-off. 15 seconds
later i was hover-taxi-ing to the base of the tower and the video link
below is me doing a hover with pedal turns and a landing, all within
the first 3 minutes ever of flying a helicopter. i seriously doubt any
pilot could fly this helicopter so well, so soon, without training
before hand.

Well, that looks about the same as I managed on my first flight. Maybe a
tad smoother, but only just. And my only previous experience has been with
R/C helis and PC simulators. After handing over the controls to me one by
one, after about 3 or 4 minutes I was hovering like that with the instructor
off the controls (but ready to pounce!) I think you should encourage a
(conventional control) R/C only friend to go do a trial lesson. You might be
surprised at how well they do.

The trouble with RC helicopters, especially well set-up ones, is that
there's very little cross-effect from the controls. Revolution mixing and
tail gyros take so much out of the pilot's hands, and feedback flybars
stabilise the cyclic to the point where on a calm day I've had a Raptor 60
hover motionless with my fingers off the cyclic for about 30 seconds.

I like the idea of the heli-chair, but I would never use it for RC training.
In fact no club I know of would likely allow an expert, let alone a student
sit there trapped waiting to be decapitated by an out of control model.
(Servo failures and RF interference are to be feared as much as
inexperience.) I think it would have more value attached to a PC sim.
Isn't MS FlightSim certified by the CAA for use under supervision these
days? In fact I've been looking at doing something similar myself.

There's no doubt in my mind that building, flying and maintaing R/C
helicopters gives someone a headstart in understanding the fundamentals of
helicopter flight, and the added control familiarity of the heli-chair would
be another bonus. With all due respect, I'm just not sure that connecting
the two is the best, or safest idea. Perhaps you could build a version with
a USB interface and bundle it with FlightSim?
(Have a look at
http://www.simw.com/index.cfm?fuseac...details&pid=64 )

Si