Start any of this is you should already be 100% comfortable with at least inverted hovering.
If you can't invert hover with zero dumb thumbs in all orientations keep working on that and come back to this later.
Half flips
Start learning a half flip by doing the elevator and rudder movements seperately at first.
- Start upright tail in
- Give a little positive pitch to keep the heli from falling
- Push forward until the nose is pointing straight down
- Stop pushing forward then give left rudder until the tail is straight down
- Pull back on the stick to level out. You will be inverted with the tail facing you
- Stop there and regain control if you are a little off
Keep doing this until you are comfortable. Gradually work the sticks in unison to smooth it out into a single roll/flip.Ultimately you want to start by pushing forward and giving left rudder at the same time. Then you should roll the cyclic stick clockwise until it gets to the 6 o'clock position. Timed right you will get a smooth roll and end with the heli inverted tail in.
Once tail in inverted you pull back on the stick and continue to give left rudder (same rudder all the time). You will roll the cyclic stick smoothly clockwise from the 6 o'clock position back to the 12 o'clock position. Again this should end up being a continuous smooth roll. You will end up where you started upright and tail in.
Practice each half slowly and eventually you can start to put them together to do a full half piro flip.
Full Piro Flips
You should be completely comfortable and dead on with half piros before considering upgrading to full piros. You should also be proficient in flips and rolls that end with the heli nose in inverted. I.E. practice nose in rolls and flips making sure you can stop halfway while still in control...
- Start upright tail in again
- This time you will apply forward cyclic and left rudder again but you will need to give more left then with a half flip because you want a full piro rotation.
- Stir the cyclic clockwise as before, but this time follow the tail completely around and stir in a complete circle. It's important to always stir with the speed of the tail. Watch the tail go around and move the stick around as it moves. It's a timing thing and the more you do it the sooner it will "click"
- If timed right and all goes well you will end up inverted nose in
- Make sure to pause here and regain control before trying to flip back out
- When starting out just reset and start over at this point. Keep repeating this until you can get the heli to stop and correctly be at the inverted nose in position. Without being able to do this properly you will never get a clean piro flip
- The beauty here is you just do the exact same movements to get back to upright tail in again. Repeat this as many times as it takes to start to get this to look and feel right. This part was always easier for me because you end up upright again which was easier for me to regain full control of in case I'm a little off on the timing.
The important thing here is to stop at each half when you are learning. Don't try to do full flips when you are starting out. They will be very sloppy at best and you won't know why. Also doing one half at a time will make learning the timing of the stir with the tail much much easier. Work on each half slowly and dont start going again until you are back in control and the heli is entered and back in front of you if you drifted away. When you are ready you can start to link the two halfs together to become a seamless full flip.
Rolling Circles
Collective and elevator cyclic to pull the heli around at 0 degree Or combination of collective elevator and tail Tail control then only use this when the heli is horizontal either upright or inverted Only small amounts of each control otherwise you will easily over load the engine
The trick to learn this maneuver is to fly in circles in the direction you are comfortable with. Then try this method up high:
- Fly around upright circles as much as you can
- Fly around inverted in circles as much as you can
If you feel comfortable making good round circles either way then it's time to roll over 180deg from right side up to inverted and cotinue to fly inverted going around until you get back where you started then roll back right side up and continue to fly right side up in a circle again. Repeat all day long.
If one rolling half flip in a circle becomes boring, then do two half roll flips opposite each other (half right side up and half inverted). FLy for weeks doing this until the circle is round.
When that gets boring, then at every quadrant of the circle you need to half roll flip. When you get done with this practice you will realize, the rudder comes to play to properly execute a nice rolling circles.
One easy way to quickly learn this maneuver is practicing this using an airplane on the sim.
