1. Beginner: RC Helicopter Pilot Proficiency Program

[@nexgenRC]

I absolutely LOVE your videos. Exactly what rc heli pilots need! Thanks for the show mention as well!

[@rchelicopter]

Thanks Rob. I'm a fan of the show, you've got some magic going on there!

[@ATVHOLICS]

Don’t want to embarrass you on HF so I’ll say it here - your videos are my inspiration & give me the will to carry on when I feel like giving up. Because of you I haven’t given up & am fast approaching the ‘it’s clicked’ stage. Thank you Richard.

[@rchelicopter]

Hey, that's awesome to hear. I think it's that way for a lot of people when they get stuck for a few years and progression stops.

[@rchelicopter]

What level are you at?

[@ATVHOLICS]

11mo in from scratch (no planes either) & getting there, need the solidity tho so I have the confidence to progress. Right now I have to concentrate on every move but I’m gradually becoming more blasé. Another month or so & I should be able to ‘do’ some of your lessons rather than just be inspired lol

[@HuevosAzules]

I flew for about 5 years, but stopped 12 ish years ago. Even when i was flying regularly, i never stopped to actually improve skills. I did flips, rolls, loops, inverted hovers, inverted forward flight, but I never tried to improve my basics to gain better control. Now that im getting back into it, I'm going to practice from the ground up. Thanks for making these videos. I can focus on improving all around, becoming better than i ised to be, and hopefully, crashing less

[@will_how]

Ok, after following along in neXt sim that was harder that I thought it would be... Flying about, and flying within set parameters are two very different things it seems :)

[@thehumblepundit9790]

I must say that I’ve been in this hobby for over a decade off and on. More off because of frustration with my lack of progression and the cost of repairs. I recently got the urge to start up again and found your vids through HF. What an inspiration. You’re vids are the first I ever really connected with and through them I realized I never really learned to fly properly. So I went back the basics. Thanks a million.

[@rchelicopter]

Dude, your comment made my day! It's awesome to hear that my videos have inspired you to pick up RC helicopters again and go back to the basics. Don't worry, we all have our ups and downs in this hobby, but the important thing is to keep pushing forward. Keep it up, my friend!

[@cruxio02]

Thank you so much for taking the time and making the effort for us newbies.

[@rchelicopter]

No worries Dee. I'm glad it helps.

[@ryanliberty2384]

Looks like a FC3 pilot! Super smooth! Great video! I can't wait to progress through all of them.

[@rchelicopter]

Thanks Ryan, much appreciated. The next one shouldn't be too far off 👌

[@n8rloves2fly]

Thanks for taking the time to do all of your progression videos, thank you for not leaving any steps out. I will be using these a lot! Great job

[@rchelicopter]

My pleasure. I hope it helps.

[@RCCopterLove]

Thank you so much for this video series! It is so good to do all these training steps ieven if I am is more advanced. And if it is to keep the precision always alive and to do sometimes things you don't do in "everyday flying".

[@pickled_finn_rc]

Great info! Thanks for sharing your knowledge, us newbies appreciate it!

[@Stoykofky]

Thanks you and give a thumbs up for this great lesson, Richard well done

[@darrylcarpenter903]

This is great for beginners which is what I am. Thanks very much and will look forward to more videos.

[@rchelicopter]

Glad to hear it Darryl. I have some fond memories of struggling through this stuff in the beginning. Enjoy the ride 👌

[@manyspanners3301]

Really helpful Rick. Thanks for doing these vids -JohnW, Stuart sent me the link.

[@rchelicopter]

No problem, hopefully you get some use out of them!

[@chargestate42]

Excellent! Your videos are fantastic!

[@rchelicopter]

Thanks Steve, I appreciate you watching!

[@4th_st_hooligan]

Another good reason to hover around the 6 foot or 2 meter mark is you are out of ground wash and the Heli isn’t flying in its own turbulent air making it more stable

[@rchelicopter]

That's a good point, I'd not mentioned that at all. Thanks

[@trexinvert]

You must be a real helicopter pilot, because those are real factors with real helicopters that are more fragile than RC's. However, if you have any experience with rc heli's they are much more powerful and robust than full scale. Rotor wash is nothing. If you have the skill you can hover inverted just inches off the ground(or even touching) with total, absolute control.

[@BskyRui]

Thanks for making videos. Hope to make more serial videos from beginner to master.🎉

[@rchelicopter]

My pleasure, thanks for watching. My plan is to do all 7 levels over the next few months.

[@HeliShed]

Now this........................ is very useful - thank you! - watching now

[@rchelicopter]

Why did I think you might still be up? :D

[@HeliShed]

@@rchelicopter - lol - just finished doing a vid for friday.........

[@HeliShed]

@@rchelicopter - does the BMFA have such a PPP? is there's available for download (stupid Q probably)

[@rchelicopter]

@@HeliShed No, they just have the A and B tests.

[@MrRctintin]

Awesome job Rich 👌

[@rchelicopter]

Thanks mate, it was your idea 😁

[@user-rydersu]

Thank you.

[@rchelicopter]

My pleasure. I hope it comes in useful for pilots that aren't as good as you 👌

[@davidnelson1322]

Excellent - been looking for this content for months. Any chance you can get some other pilots of other standards to show us - what progression is needed to get to your level. Can I Suggest another video about over controlling. ( I know I do this but don't know the cause - other then being late correcting and then correcting too much)

[@rchelicopter]

Over-correcting is something we all do, but it goes with practice. I'd suggest things like the pirouette of shame, and the F3C hovering manouevres. They really pick on your grey areas and clean up over-correcting and right-angle correcting.

[@rchelicopter]

BTW, I just made up right-angle correcting a few seconds ago :D It's when the model drifts diagonally, but instead of countering diagonally the other way, you do a bit of elevator and then aileron, i.e. 2 separate movements.

[@yodecaf]

A question on stick tension---I know its all personal preference but I always liked tension when flying fixed wing, but noticed the RTR controllers that come with models have almost no tension. It does in fact make it easy to make small corrections in the middle. Do most pilots fly with little stick tension?

[@rchelicopter]

Pilots fly everything from loose to tight. Unfortunately there is no way to tell you what sort of tension is good, as there's no objective way to measure.

[@rochaeliasbr]

Boa !

[@leepering4440]

Hi great video what sim are you using ? i use phoenix and real flight 7 and no matter how hard i try i cannot Matane a stationary hover not sure if its me or the flight sim

[@rchelicopter]

I'm using neXt. It shouldn't be too hard to hold a hover in a sim, unless the wind is turned on, or the transmitter isn't calibrated.

[@leepering4440]

@@rchelicopter Hi i will recalibrated the TX thank you for taking the time to reply

[@axelminet1095]

Keep it up, very useful, if you could do it on a simulator too ;) Too bad that on the pdf there are no images to match the text with a photo. Are you going to do the rest of the pdf maneuvers?

[@rchelicopter]

Thanks. I think I'll do the whole series in real as I've started that way, and some prefer it. I meant to do diagrams, so I'll do that for the rest of the levels.

[@axelminet1095]

@@rchelicopter thk 😀

[@GallagherRC]

What sim are you using in your videos?

[@rchelicopter]

Heli-X and neXt.

[@mohamadalsarraf]

thanks for the videos, I have one question, while doing these exercises are you using stability mode?

[@rchelicopter]

Thanks. That's a definite no to stability mode.

[@howintesting940]

This is not a bad vid, but, sorry to say, falls into the same inefficient instruction area so that it does not say anything about "stick movement". Whatever way heli moves must be accomplished via user's stick movement. You can easily say, "move circularly," but how to? This is what a beginner would like to know first thing.

[@rchelicopter]

Thanks, and that's an interesting point. There are a few schools of thought on the sticks thing, and instinctive flying avoids talking about sticks completely, unless for temporary breakthroughs. I think to fly this beginner level of proficiency test, a pilot would have had to gone through the early stages of learning the stick movements., and this is just the flown test. Thanks for your feedback!

[@howintesting940]

Don't take me wrong, Richard. This is still a good video. I should have said, "it would be better if stick movements were also instructed." That will make it even outstanding !@@rchelicopter