You have gotten to where you can raise and lower the throttle and keep the tail pointed towards you. You can move the tail left and right and make it stop where you want it to stop. Great! Now it’s time to take your helicopter into the air for the first time. Set your helicopter on the box with the X and spool it up like you did in the first exercise, keeping the tail pointing towards you. This time raise the throttle until the helicopter starts to lift off the ground. Once you see it’s getting light on the skids, you will notice it will want to scoot to the left. This is natural for any helicopter that has a clockwise rotating blade. Because of the rotation of the blade, the body of the helicopter wants to rotate counterclockwise. To stop this action, the tail rotor forces air out to the right, pushing the tail to the left and countering the rotational effect of the main blades. Due to this force, the helicopter wants to go to the left all the time. If you look at a helicopter hovering in the air, you will notice it’s leaning to the right just slightly. This is to counter the force given off by the tail rotor. It’s bad enough when you are taking off from just skids, but when you have training gear on your helicopter, then it really makes it want to go to the left.

As you are spooling the helicopter up and it’s getting light on the skids, make sure to be ready to give it some right cyclic (right stick) to counter this. Do not leave the ground just yet. It’s time to teach you exactly what that right stick does. The right stick, also known as the cyclic, is what makes your helicopter pitch forward, backward, right and left. When you are in a hover, this is the stick that you will use to keep the helicopter from moving outside of the box. With the tail facing towards you (tail in), think of the main shaft as your cyclic stick. If you push up, the helicopter will go forward, if you push right, the helicopter will pitch to the right, and so on. As long as you have the tail facing you, whatever way you move the stick is the direction the helicopter is going to go.
Get your helicopter light on the training gear and give right cyclic to keep it in one place. Then, lower the throttle and wait for the blades to slow down. Then do it over and over again until you think you have a good hold on keeping it in one spot.

Once you’ve done this a few times, it’s time to start moving the helicopter around. I want you to spool the helicopter up and get it light on the skids as you just did. Keep it over the box with the X in it. Then move the helicopter by scooting it across the ground about 10’ in front of the box, and stop. Then bring the helicopter back to the box with the X. When you are going backwards, make sure your vertical stabilizer is longer than your tail blades. This keeps the blades from hitting the ground and causing damage. As you are going backwards, you will be dragging the vertical stab on the ground. If your vertical stab is not long enough, then don’t go backwards. Take the helicopter forward 10’, and land it, and bring it back by hand to the box with the X in it. Next, spool the helicopter up and go backwards. If you can’t do this because of your vertical stab, then skip this step.
Starting at the home box, spool it up until it’s light on the skids. Move the helicopter to the right about 10’, stop, and then come back. Next, move the helicopter from the home box and go left about 10’. You will notice that moving left is really easy and can get pretty fast, so be ready for it. Then bring it back home. Keep doing this until you feel you can move the helicopter around in a straight line. Make it go where you want it to go. The next step is to take the helicopter diagonally. It’s exactly the same as we just did, but now you are going to have to use up and right, up and left, back and right and back and left. Keep doing this until you feel that you have a really good hold on how to handle the helicopter.

Now comes the fun part. We are going to get the helicopter off the ground. With your heli over the X, raise the throttle until it gets light on the skids. Make sure you are ready for it to move left. Keep raising the throttle until the helicopter rises off the ground. Keep the heli under a foot off the ground just in case you get in trouble and need to drop the throttle. Chopping the throttle is your panic move. If you lose it, just drop the throttle and the helicopter will land safely. Now do you see why you have training gear? If you get in trouble and have to drop it, reset the heli on the X and start again. This part can take a while to master, so go at your own pace. You want to bring the helicopter into a hover and keep at least one ball inside the box at all times. The helicopter is going to want to move around, and you are going to have to counter this action. Think of it this way, you are trying to balance a marble on a sheet of glass. Every time you give the helicopter an input, you have to counter the input or it will keep rolling. The same thing applies with the helicopter. If you tell it to go right, it will go right, then keep going until you tell it to stop.

Now that you can hold the helicopter in a stable hover, it’s time to move it around a little bit. I want you to do the exact same thing you did when you were scooting it across the ground. Go forward about 10’ and then backwards. Don’t worry about the tail hitting the ground this time as the heli should be in the air. Then do your right and left, and your diagonal.

Now, I want you to stand on the box with the X in it and put your heli on the box that is in front of you. You will bring the helicopter up into a hover, then bring the helicopter to your right box without moving your body and keep the nose facing the same way. Yes, the helicopter will be side in, but with you facing forward, only turning your head to see the heli, you will be able to keep control of it. After you get the heli to the box on your right, bring it back home, then go to the left. Remember, do not move your body, only your head to see the helicopter. Make sure to go slow. If you get in trouble just drop the throttle, your training gear will save your helicopter. Keep doing this slowly until you can do a couple batteries without having to land or having to drop the throttle in a panic. If you can do this, then congratulations, you are now flying your very first RC helicopter! Keep practicing these hovering techniques. I still like to take a heli and just hover it and try to stay in one place for a whole battery.