With a nod to this thread, I thought I’d raise a slightly different topic, that of using flight sim software to help out with helicopter training.
I am in the midst of my lessons, and having problems with how all the control interact (throttle, collective, cyclic, pedals). I know what they do in the primary sense, but their secondy affects, and what needs to be done to counteract them, I am fuzzy on.
It strikes me that a simulator would be ideal for this (assuming it a similar levels of controls, two joysticks and pedals; keyboard), as it’s a very mathematical problem.
I acknowledge that the real vision, sound, feel, smell, etc is going to make a huge difference, but I can’t help feeling that a little more time on the controls would be a LOT more helpful. The book the school gave me is excellent, and suggests just using a few sticks, which I have tried, and it helps a lot… but if I forget about a tertiary cause of an action I just did, in RL in be in trouble, and the sticks are not going to tell me that!
I’ll take what you guys say as the thing to do, but I just wanted to check to see if a fixed wing machine is different is this regard to a helicopter.
Don’t know anything about software, but I have seen a “helicopter joystick” in a computer shop - i.e. a joystick accompanied by that thing in the middle with a twist-grip for the throttle and an up-down action for adjusting the pitch of the rotors. I’m not sure if it also came with pedals, but I assume so. It was a while ago, but it might still be there. Next time I’m passing I’ll pop in and see who makes it.
It was very realistic! It has cyclic and collective pedals/stick. I became very proficient in “Real Heli Flight mode” and would bet that from what I learned in this video game that I would be able to fly a helicopter (rudimentarily) if a copilot needed me to take control in an emergency.
If you could find one near you, I’m sure it would be exactly the kind of flight sim experience you are looking for. Save up those quarters!
IANAP (but I hope to be someday), but a more recent “realistic” heli sim is Vietnam MedEvac, a demo of which I know you can download someplace. (Your co-pilot cringes at near-misses and everything).
Sim-pilot: Hey, Chopper Dude, I just got a new helicoptor sim. It’s great!
Chopper Dude: Is it down for maintenance at least 75% of the time?
Sim-pilot: No
Chopper Dude: Not a very accurate simulation then, is it?
The only kind of simulator I think is going to what Abby and Silk want it to do would be a full-motion simulator - but those cost more to rent an hour than planes and choppers.
IANAHP, but I suspect the “stick play” recommended is as useful as a PC heli sim, and much cheaper. The “chair flying” does improve one’s performance. Otherwise - to some extent learning to fly involves gaining real experience.
my uncle and cousin are both Black Hawk pilots (uncle is in Iraq, cousin is in Korea), and they have both talked about how surprisingly realistic the motions of the military’s training simulator can be.
These machines probably costs $10 million, though.
One free, but less realistic, option can be found here.
You’d need a FMS and an instructor for that last part…but the sim software’s the same as what you can download from the website. The demo is fully functional, but cuts out joystick control after five minutes.
When I was getting ready to start my helicopter training, I found that the thing which helped most didn’t require any equipment. I sat in a chair and mentally went through the control movements over and over. If I moved the cyclic forward, then i added left pedal and increased collective. I just went through that control simulation in my head thousands of times, before I ever got in a helicopter.
As lame as this seems, the control movements became second nature to me. When the time came to start helicopter training, I hovered unassisted on my first try. From the start, I was in control of it. Doing quick stops and autorotations only a few hours in.
I easily saved myself 5 hours of flight training, merely by mentally going through those motions.
All I am saying is, you don’t need a simulator. Just practice in your head with those control movements. Over and over. A few thousand times. When the control movements are second nature and you don’t have to even think about them, you can focus on the maneuvers much more effectively. And far better than any flight simulator you can buy.
