@Hippolite
I did not mean to make a big story of about how long it did take for me to hover. Furthermore, give me some more wind with gusts from the side and a former stable hover falls down into pieces. I was surprised myself that it klicked for me that soon, though. I follow this forum for more than 5 years now and did only register 2 years ago (as you all can see from my profile). And i read a couple of threads concerning how long it will take to hover (and more interesting questions from beginners).
To solo is a completely different story (as you obviously know). Without being able to fly a proper approach and knowing the details of an autorotation and other emergency handlings i will not be send for solo (and definately would not want that anyway). Everything comes at a time. Right now i am on holidays which means no flying for about 3 weeks (but reading books for groundschool though
). We will see what the first lesson after three weeks of absence will be then.
The last two lessons we spent mainly with take-off's and landing into/from a hover and practice (for me especially with landings) is key i guess. We also did some more airwork (x-times quickstops, 360 deg turns with different bank angles) and at the end of my last lesson before my holidays i got a demo of an autorotation (not fully down but recovering in forward flight being approximately 1 feet above the ground at 30-40 knots
)
@Gerhardt
I don't know whether you should 'learn' anything from my writing. I can only tell how i felt during my lessons and what impressions i got. I definately do not have the aim of teaching anything to anybody. If you enjoy my writings, well thx for that then.
Concerning hover height: As i learn with different instructors they all seem to 'favour' a hoverheight of 5 feet, at least at the beginning. I was later asked to hover between 3 and 5 feet and especially because we are working on landing the helicopter from a stable hover i should also perform a hover at less than 1 feet and another way to practise the handling close to the ground is, to make the chopper light on the skids but not to take off into a hover. Taking off and setting down are the same things, just in opposite steps (more or less).
Regards
Ready2Fly