Okay, we have your helicopter setup, you have gotten some practice on the sim, you have the perfect place to practice, now we need to setup the flying space. The best way I have ever found to learn how to control your helicopter is by box training. What is box training you ask? Box training is just what it sounds like. You will put 3 boxes on the ground, and you will be either hovering over them, or you will be flying to each one.

The first thing you want to do is put a box right in the middle of where you are going to fly. The box should be just larger than your training gear. Now, put an X in this center box. This is now known as the “Home Boxâ€. This is where you will always start and stop from. Now, put two more boxes on the ground about 10’ to the right and left of the home box. And finally put a box 10’ in front of and behind the home box. These will be the boxes that you are going to be flying to in the upcoming lessons.

Why are we putting boxes on the ground? I find having a visual spot to fly to will help a lot more than just randomly flying. The most important thing you can do to help from crashing is knowing what your next move is going to be. I have been caught many times flying around and at the last second decided to try something. I ended up crashing because I was not ready for the reaction. When you set these boxes up on the ground, you will have a visual point of reference. If you think beforehand which box you want to go to, you will be ready to move it there and react to anything that happens.

We have the boxes setup. You know why they are there. Go ahead and set your helicopter on the box with the X in it.