Hovering
 

Good morning all,
"Mature" student here just learning to fly helicopters for fun and to be able to do a couple of hours each month once / if I get my PPL (H).
I have done almost 20 hours now, great instructor, very patient and encouraging etc and I have been making good progress with the exercises up to now Exercise 11 Hovering!
I am starting to seriously worry I may not ever get how to hover.
In an effort to get the neural pathways burned in I booked in a couple of hours of just hover and I must have had in total with the little bits at ends of lessons close to 5 hours of hover training and I am still unable to master it.
I can do pedals on own and, getting better on pedals and collective but as soon as I go near the cyclic I am all over the place!
So, serious question for those of you with way more experience, is there any practical tips on how I can practice at home so as to maximise time with rotors turning or, if I haven't got it by now do you think it is a lost cause? Is about 5 hours of just hover training a lot? How long is the average etc. Thanks for any advice offered.
Old Dog

Learning to hover is like learning to ride a bike, your subconscious just has to figure out how to balance it.

It will come eventually with continued exposure, and probably just all of a sudden. One morning you'll still be hovering like ####, then in the afternoon BAM you can hover.

Anyway, the exercise that really helped me, was to go to a grassy area and hover taxi from sprinkler head to sprinkler head, stopping briefly at each before moving on to the next. We did it forward, then sideways hover taxi to the right, then to the left.

Anyway, the exercise that really helped me, was to go to a grassy area and hover taxi from sprinkler head to sprinkler head, stopping briefly at each before moving on to the next. We did it forward, then sideways hover taxi to the right, then to the left.[/QUOTE]

Robbiee, sprinkler heads are few and far between in the UK (exclusive golf courses being an exception) maybe opt from puddle to puddle.

What aircraft?

I learned on an R22 and held on to the cyclic like I was strangling a cat. My instructor said that if I held it between my thumb and forefinger I would have much finer control but that felt like alchemy to me.

Then, one day, I don't remember when, I started holding the stick as described and it truly transformed my control of the aircraft, rather than controlling from my elbow and shoulder, I was making fine adjustments with my fingers and wrist.

I distinctly remember the day that it all fell into place. I was holding short at the threshold looking up the approach and talking to ATC at the same time, my arms and legs were just doing their things without me thinking about it.

BTW, like you, I was flying about an hour a week so that I could continue to run my business. Given my time over, I would have taken a couple of months off and flown every day rather than spending the first half hour of each lesson relearning what I'd forgotten from the week before.

Learning to hover should be done in discrete steps. First is controlling the pedals, by themselves, keeping a distant target between your toes. Instructor will wait till you are doing OK, then introduce secondary effects - lift the lever, see if you can stop the yaw. Move sideways, keep that target between your toes. Then learn to slowly turn 90 degrees out of wind, new target, hold it. Then 180 with wind up backside, yaw control is touchy. Then make a 360 at a slow steady rate, anticipating the slow down/speed up of the wind. Keep it pointed while instructor lands and lifts off again.

Second is collective (by itself), learning to set a lever position, hold it, and wait to see what the height settles at. I usually have my left thumb on the edge of the seat, and can make small movements using my thumb as a pivot. Make only small smooth changes, wait. To land, it is down a bit, wait, down a bit, wait, down...ok, on the ground already.

Next step is pedals and collective together, keep pointing and slowly land from hover height. Make 360 turn at steady rate and same height. Instructor moves cyclic around to get secondary effects, you have to fix them.

When you are reasonable at this exercise, instructor takes them all back and then demos use of the cyclic. (I would show Bloggs that it is possible to hover the aircraft with one finger on the cyclic, one foot on the pedals, and left hand in the air - no need to be stirring custard, pumping water and doing a tap-dance.)

Then key to controlling the cyclic is to look at the attitude out the front. When the instructor demos the hover, look at where the horizon is in the window. It will always be very close to that spot in the hover. Forward flight is a bit different, with attitude controlling airspeed. A little dynamic stability in forward flight helps you keep it steady. In the hover, no stability. It will change by itself and with secondary effects, so it is essential to be VERY picky on holding the attitude.

If the attitude changes, FIX IT! Don't wait, do it immediately. If you allow the attitude to differ from the hover attitude, the aircraft will start to move. Say for example you let the nose get a bit low, and don't fix it straight away. The aircraft starts to move forward, and flapback starts to become a factor - the nose will tip back up, probably about the time you realise you are moving forward and you start to raise it up yourself. End result, forward movement stops, rearward starts, flap-forward starts, you slowly realise the nose was too high, and put in some forward cyclic.

Too slow, you have lost it.

Don't even try to hold position at first, just work on the attitude. Gets low, fix it. You might have drifted forward a bit, but if you get back to the hover attitude, you will coast to a stop. Eventually you will get used to working very hard on holding the hover attitude, and the aircraft has pretty much stopped. Then you can use pressure on the stick to control movement. Larger inputs to get back to hover attitude, pressure then to stop movement or initiate a hover-taxi. Instructor (on the pedals and collective) will then make some changes which will have secondary effects on the attitude, and your job will be to hold the attitude steady. Doesn't mean "lock the cyclic against your leg" because you will then crash. Fingertip pressure is all you need (different in an R22 though).

When on all 3 controls, the priorities are :
1. Make it POINT! If you can't keep a target between your toes, or control the rate of turn, you will never be able to hover. Not ever.
2. Keep it FLAT! Hold the hover attitude flat in the window.
3. Fix the height. Least important. You will not hit the ground, because you will flinch and jerk up on the collective. Stay at height, let it settle by lowering the lever a centimetre, wait for it to settle, down a bit, wait, down a bit, wait... you are waiting for the aircraft to settle in ground effect and bounce back up a little.

As said above, one day the Hover Fairy will whack you across the head with her magic wand and it will be just "a feeling" to make it hover. Rotsa ruck.

Just to upset the proverbial apple cart here…. It is all in your mind anyways……

Why not forget trying to hover, and just move over the ground at 25 kts, then slow it down to 20, then 15, then 10………..

1. Never give up.
2. Balance a broom handle in the palm of your hand. Once you’ve mastered that, on the end of your index finger, then on your nose (seriously).

It’ll begin to come together, and when you start to feel is won’t, refer to #1 :ok:

Notice the difference between looking at your hand (whack on head) and looking at the end of the broom.

​​​​​​​The end of the broom is the attitude, and you do whatever is needed with your hand to keep it steady. Good analogy and hand/eye training.

Do not look down…biggest problem is folks focusing their eyes too close to the helicopter.
Look towards the horizon, do not focus too intently on one spot, you will get tunnel vision, let your peripheral vision do its job.
i always remember my instructor, after returning the helicopter to a state of equilibrium..placing one middle finger on top of the cyclic the other on the end of the cyclic and the toes of his boots lightly on the pedals and doing a perfect hover pattern with a 360 at each corner and saying…”yer making it much more difficult for yourself than it really is….now relax!”

Oh….hover hand relaxation device….a cigarette works even better.
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....5fe366a11.jpeg

Don't worry about it. The worst thing you can do is focus a whole lesson on hovering. As AC has suggested, it kinda comes, and you can't really force it. Just do a little bit in every lesson. If you're a normal student, you're probably in for 50-60 hours to crack the whole thing anyway, so there's no rush.

If you want a cheap home trainer get a bosu ball or one of several equivalents. If you're struggling with the rest of it, there may be a point where it's nature's way of telling you that helicoptering isn't for you, but it sounds like you're not there yet. I can assure you the first day it happens is worth the wait.

In the meantime, for the rest of us, if you want to remind yourself what not being able to hover is like, swap hands. Might be good to have a friend in the cockpit when you do that !

PS I assume your instructor is doing the pedals and collective for you, so you can sort out the balance issues with the cyclic ?

What do you think you are doing wrong? (Hint: Very few people are guilty of undercontrolling). Don't try to keep it on one place, just try to keep it level. Then you can introduce a slight bit of opposite drift correction and back to level again. You'll get it in the end. It's like flying a helicopter.

Keep the cyclic still and let the helicopter do its thing around it. Don't chase it.

Another technique.......
 

All of the above is true, but there is always more than one way to 'skin a cat'.

I had exactly the same problem and my instructor, having failed to fix my control reversals, was on the verge of chopping me when he flipped his strategy.
He took me to the hover squares and told me to 'stir' the cyclic in a pretty rapid and constant circular motion whilst he did pedals/collective, the point being to adjust the centre of the cyclic circle to prevent drift and remain inside the square.

What ensued was initially both ugly and uncomfortable, but instantaneously effective. Because I was stirring I was avoiding the reversals and, due to the speed of the stirring, no single cyclic displacement had any positional effect (other than to make us nod in unison). All I had to do was incrementally (and subconsciously) move the centre of the circle to maintain the desired hover position.

All that remained to do was to reduce the diameter of the circle until my subconscious brain got the hang of doing it the proper way, then add the pedals/collective back in.

Probably not a recommended technique, but talk it through with your instructor. It may help.

Thanks for bringing back that memory, seems like a loooong time ago!

Two things worked or me - Ftrst (like topradio) grip - light and relaxed and resting on my knee. Second (and most important) 'fly the disc' Other than wind effects, the only thing which moves the helo from the hover is disc displacement. ergo, keep the disc steady and the rest of the machine has to behave ! :ok:

R44, pedals, collective I am good (well ok) with just cyclic wont behave itself when I get my hands on it!

Thank you for all the really good replies. I would press Like if I had the option on your posts.
I will try the pen trick Albatross.
And the broomstick SilsoeSid.
I wont be giving up, I absolutely love the flying just wish I had done it when younger but, when younger I would not have been able to afford it.
Thanks Guys for all the tips,
Old Dog

Exactly that! I recall clearly going on my second or third hovering session. They were going ok but not as well as I’d have liked. We hover taxied to the practice area but were told to hold short of the active runway. I was looking for the traffic and after a while the instructor piped up and said “do you realise you are in a rock steady hover?” And that was that!

If you could learn to fly from written advice alone, you wouldn’t need an instructor.

Avoiding to give another “this worked for me” comment, I suggest try bringing another instructor in the mix (without prejudice to your current instructor). Getting more than one viewpoint always helps.

And choose a different profile. If your current instructor is a young guy with just “a hundred hours more than you”, go for an old hand. If your current instructor is a”general” who intimidates you, go for one of those people persons who tells you you are doing great, even if you fly like ####.

You will do fine in no time.

The ‘Wallop Takeaway’…
LWAPAM
Look well ahead & pick a marker.

As per #4 and #5 ...
Most important rest your forearm on your thigh if you can, and keep it there; hold the cyclic lightly between thumb and the first two or three fingers only. Concentrate on the horizon and as soon as the aircraft attitude changes adjust it back quickly to the hover attitude with small movements before the aircraft moves; there is usually quite an interval between the change in attitude and aircraft movement unless the attitude change is big. If it does move go back to the hover attitude first then make small cyclic changes in opposition to the direction of travel until stopped, then hover attitude again. It's easier to prevent losing the hover than regaining it! Glance closer to the aircraft only to judge height and movement over the ground. Prolonged hovering is not easy so don't try for too long, try to relax, especially that hand and arm! We all felt as though we were rolling about in a saucer when we first tried to hover.

Memo to all - RTQ

212-here is a Sergei Sikorsky event on the subject:
1982 Hanover Airshow. Sergei hosts evening party in nearby rented barn. Invitees are limited to pilots in the show-any function. Dress is flight suits. Informal food and all sorts of alcohol-no shortage.
Discussion starts between German F-4 fighter pilot and German CH-53G helicopter pilots, who claim their task in flying a helicopter is far more demanding and the F-4 pilot likely couldn’t even hover a helicopter. Sergei enters the conversation, finds me and a serious bet is made, with me to give a ride to the F-4 pilot on the morrow, with 53G pilots along to witness. Sergei to be the judge.
0800 the next morning all appear with ( honest to God ) the F-4 guy in the same scotch smelling flight suit he had on the night before. The 53G guys are smiling and counting their winnings.
Took the F-4 pilot out to a nearby field which had trees along one side then a fence at 90 degrees to the tree line, and the ground cover was under a foot high. The F-4 pilot had good visual cues for translational movement.
Anyhow, long story short, with those geometric cues and some coaching re the controls from me, in 15-20 minutes the F-4 guy could hover in position or change his position. I’ve always thought it might have ( probably was? ) been the scotch, because this pilot was quite obviously still under the influence, so to speak. The 53G crew were not smiling!

Engage auto hover. Lift to hover. Engage rad alt hold.

Not difficult really.

No. Except the OP asked how he could practice at home… ;)

Kind of defeats the purpose of Learning to hover. What happen if the auto hover fails for some reason

A decent vindaloo and a comfy couch should provide sufficient practice :E

As mentioned earlier, look well ahead at the horizon. Use the cyclic to keep the attitude steady. Don’t try to use the cyclic in reaction to sideways or fore/aft movement. If you notice that the aircraft is moving, select and hold a slightly different attitude so as to reduce the motion. Creating a “control loop” whereby motion triggers cyclic input directly, will never work.

Press the transition up button, obvs,

You will get it, 5 hours isn't bad. Nothing like hover practice to wear you out and overwhelm you really fast. You need to only do a little at a time. If you practice any more than a few minutes solid it maybe be frustrating and counter productive in my opinion. Pretty sure I had about 30 hours of instruction in maybe more before I could hold a steady hover. So I can't say it came easy to me either. I found the R22/44 harder to hover than say the Hughes Schweizer 269 platform. The key like some of the other guys have said is to look out. if you look close in or right off the nose it all goes bad quick. When I got rusty after not flying for a bunch of years. I found myself looking too close and the hovering wasn't all that pretty until I remembered to look out. If you look kind of straight ahead it smooths things out and you kind of feel your position from the peripheral vision mostly and glances here and there. .

It is worth it once you master it. I still go out and practice squares, nose around a point, tail around a point. Once you can hover you can go out and fly a good hour or so with just hover practice and slow taxi's and not ever even have to go anywhere! Can't do that in a fixed wing! Flying helicopters always puts a smile on your face.

I found the R-22 had a tendency to roll left in a hover and would coach my students to lead in with slight right cyclic pressure. This would help alleviate the left translation. Any left cyclic pressure in hover would result in rapid acceleration to the left, avoid this!

I realized this was half the battle in teaching cyclic hovering skills.

Now, for forward and aft translation, focus your view well outside and in front of the helicopter. Keep the “relative” horizon (i.e. hedge line, tree line) along a specific point across the windscreen using slight forward and aft cyclic pressure. Through your peripheral vision note where the wet compass is relative to the horizon to help refine your forward and aft cyclic inputs.

I’m assuming the wet compass is still mounted on the windscreen support at the pilots eye level.

You’re already familiar with the theory and feel of cyclic control lag and PIO so don’t try to hold a precise position in a hover. Instead, hold in that right lateral cyclic, then, as necessary, move the cyclic forward and aft against that right cyclic pressure to keep the helicopter level in pitch. Don’t worry if the helicopter drifts as long as you are level (both laterally and longitudinally) you’re somewhat in control now. Over time you will refine your cyclic inputs and develop the muscle machine memory skills which will allow you to maintain that steady hover. Good luck and have fun. You will get it.

Remember:
1.) Eyes outside on the horizon.
2.) Lead with slight right cyclic pressure to prevent the helicopter from rolling to the left. This is very important!
3.) Work the cyclic forward and aft against that right cyclic pressure to keep the helicopter level in pitch.
4.) Remember, as long as you’re not pitching and rolling excessively, you’re somewhat in control. Accept a little forward and aft drifting initially and don’t chase every translation. Allow the helicopter to settle and reach equilibrium/hover trim.

That’s how i do it Gordy! Usually get the student to fly circuits and transition to a slow hover taxi for a 100m or so then transition to another circuit, then repeat! Slowing it down on each circuit, I find it counter productive if you just go out and do hovering for 30min - 1hr. I try not to dwell on hovering too much as the student can end up
over thinking it.

As all the others say, it’s like riding a bike, one day it’ll just ”click” and you’ll think, why couldn’t I do this yesterday! I still remember my first day of actual hovering.

Good luck!

SS

Exactly---works everytime.

Exactly my experience - However it immediately went to shi1t as soon as my instructor said I was hovering :-).

It will come, and when it does you will wonder why it took so long. My hover square was next to a patch of potatoes, and it was a great feeling the day I stopped drifting over them!

When we first did hovering in the Huey in the early 70s, there was no real teaching on what to look for, it was just "stop moving around." Somehow we found the hover fairy and we all went solo in the circuit with 12 hours total.

When I came back years later as an instructor, the lesson plans spoke of the Hover Attitude. Bingo. The light came on about what the brain was really doing, and I was asking "why didn't they tell us this when we were learning?"

Was that stab out John? ;)

Had a 222 demonstrator pilot and airframe turn up at work and went for a fly, lifting off the pad and trying to hover taxi was a fools errand, quickly handed over, first ride in a 47 10,000 hours previously was far, far better

I was also a late bloomer when it came to flying.
I dug out the old logbook, dredging up a few R22 memories (or is it traumas? :} ).
I had 3.5 hours under the belt when we started hovering exercises, I remember it being a bit frustrating at the time, when you are a bit older you are determined to succeed and it just does not work that way..
Got it right after 2 hours, it was also a case of splitting sessions between circuits, mainly to break the cycle of getting stuck in your own head and trying to choke the cyclic to death.
Happy days.

I have seen some guys really struggle, especially if they aren't flying often enough, it makes it much harder to build the muscle memory and get the feel right.

No, Megan-stabilator left in auto, so full trailing edge down for this hovering event.
Check PM for related Hanover event.

Well, it is really interesting reading everyone's memories about learning to hover.

I really struggled to get a grip of it. My instructor kept saying " see the attitude change and correct !" (Sometimes, in a bit more forthright manner) Then one day it started to drizzle while I was trying to hover. A matrix of small water droplets appeared on the windshield, which when viewed against the horizon gave me that SEE THE ATTITUDE CHANGE.

From then on, I knew how small the magnitude of change was, to which I needed to respond.

Keep practising. Just like learning to ride a bicycle....... It will come to you

Unfortunately that T bar cyclic arrangement isn't as stable as a proper cyclic.

BUT, being able to rest your hand on your leg so you only use small, dextrous finger and wrist muscles instead of big shoulder muscles makes a huge difference.

Understand that you are looking for VERY SMALL changes in the attitude - if you can see that a picture on the wall is wonky, you can see the changes in the attitude starting to happen - that is the learning process for hovering, anticipating the aircraft movement as soon as the attitude changes even a tiny bit.

One of the more difficult things is to recognise the difference between a small lateral movement and a small yawing movement - the picture out the front initially looks the same as the world is moving laterally in the windscreen. That does come with practice.

Early on, I was getting close to keeping it still, but it would bobble about. The Boss said ‘spell your middle name. Alright, now backwards’. While concentrating on that, I noticed the world had frozen - the aircraft seemed nailed there. Got to the end of the backwards spelling, bobbling started again. I concluded that the trick was to concentrate on not thinking about it.