This is the same problem airplane pilots have in judging flare height for normal landiings, almost all of the anxiety built up is due to a poor understanding of exactly how much altitude is left prior to skid contact. I suggest this technique:
On a flat ramp, stand up and spot the horizon. Then slowly sink down and drop your eye level as you keep looking toward the horizon. Note the "flattening" of the earth as the sight plane gets more and more edge-on. Imagine a rectangle painted on the earth that looks like a perfect box shape from directly above, but begins to look more and more foreshortened, and more like a triangle as you get lower. Keep getting lower until your eyes are about 2 feet from the ground. This "flattening" of the earth is how you judge height, and is the only way to do it. If you spot the ground below you and try to judge its rushing up toward you, you will not be able to tell when to expect contact, and you will undoubtedly pull early (because the jolt of not pulling collective is too horrible to even contemplate).
Now ask your instructor to let you make some running landings that get you closer and closer to the ground, and you predict the EXACT time and height that the skids will touch, literally within 1/4 inch. Do this three times and you will have the height judging confidence to make the correct collective pull.
Last edited by NickLappos; 30th January 2006 at 04:47.