I don't ever apply any cyclic friction as it takes the feel away.
The feel? What feel? There is no "feel." No feedback at all in a 206.
I go 'round and 'round about this with pilots who don't like any cyclic friction. Nobody ever looks at their own cyclic when they fly, so I take the controls and have them remove all the friction. And no matter how hard I try...and I really do...there is no way that I can keep the cyclic from moving, even tiny amounts, and sometimes big ones! Still, even with no friction most people would consider me "pretty smooth" and most of these tiny movements don't result in any noticeable deviations or oscillations of the helicopter.
Or do they?
Here's the deal: *ANY* movement of the cyclic - even 1/8th of an inch - which is very small - any movement of the cyclic means that the swash plate is moving a proportional amount. It can be no other way; there is no slop in the controls. And if that 1/8th inch cyclic input is not necessary, then it must be countered with another 1/8th input in the other direction. And so then you, MR. PILOT, have just induced a PIO. Will it be noticeable to you or your passengers? Probably not in a sense that the airframe moves "much," because the control inputs are too quick and tiny. But the ride will be "busy." Needlessly busy.
Pilots who fly with zero cyclic friction *think* they can be as smooth as pilots who fly with "some" cyclic friction, but it is simply not true. You watch their cyclic as they fly and it is *always* making tiny little...unnecessary...movements.
Back when I was young and inexperienced, I wanted no friction on the cyclic. I was under the mistaken impression that you had to "feel" what the ship was doing, and moreover
could do so! better with no friction. Over the years I learned differently. And now, like Gomer Pylot, I fly with enough cyclic friction to give me some drag...to keep the cyclic from moving if I (horrors!) take my hand off it. The upside is that in flight, the stick does not move unnecessarily. In fact, most of the time it does not move at all unless I command it. I'm more relaxed, because I'm not balancing on the beachball all the time.
I've told this story before. Ferrying a 206 out west with an uninsurable (insufficient make/model time) pilot. He was on the controls, a "good" helicopter pilot, pretty smooth, but he was constantly jiggling me around. If a pen had been mounted so that it stuck off the bottom of his cyclic grip, it would have made a terrible scribble on a piece of paper.
I took the controls. "Try this," I said, and had him put some friction on - not a lot. Once the cyclic got to the proper "trim" point, I was able to take my hands off, fold them in front of me and keep the ship flying straight and level with the PEDALS. Tiny little pedal pressures were all that were needed to correct any bank excursions. The pilot/owner flew along like that for a while, but he could not get used to it (didn't want to, is more like it). Then he took all the friction off again. While he agreed that my way did work better, he said, "I just
like it better this way." I shrugged. Eh.
It did not matter to him that he could be "smoother" with some friction on the cyclic. He thought he was "smooth enough" with no friction. And it's probably true in a way. All helicopters "jiggle" in flight a little. Who really cares about tuning that stuff out? Many pilots obviously feel the same way. To each his own. But anything I can do to lessen the workload in flying these pieces of junk is okay by me.
And a little cyclic friction means that you have to work less
