General The Wall

T

treff

Active Member
I seem to have hit a wall with my flying. I am so afraid of crashing that I am now crashing every time I fly. I just can not seem get past this. My brain just freezes and `I watch the heli either hit trees or the ground. Any thoughts,
ideas of getting around this would be most welcome. I can hover the heli all day a few feet from the ground but if I venture past 6 feet I crash. On the sim I can hover anyway I want nose in, tail in. I do circuits, no problem but once
past 6 foot I freeze, then crash. It happens every time. help.
 
Westy

Westy

LEGEND
yes ... I got to that point ..... and hated putting the tx in my hands ..... I found Radds school of Rotary Flight to be the best thing I did to snap out of it..... It was just a little mis understanding that me and my heli had ..... I finally took the time to sit down and understand her, get the feel for her and guide her ..... and learnt control and discipline.

Stopped crashing well mostly .... till recently.... and once again soared with the eagles.
 
Tony

Tony

Staff member
It's a psychological thing and I think most of us have went through it at one time or another. I know i have. Hell, I'm still going through it. I have a feeling its what's called Target Fixation or tunnel vision. Basically you are flying, not wanting to hit something, but then you ONLY think about hitting that "something".

My advice is to get out in an open field. Set up the boxes that I have in the flight school and follow the program. It will teach you to keep your helicopter within a 20' box.
 
T

treff

Active Member
Thanks Tony and Westy. Yes I have to take a different approach with this. My brain is just going into panic mode and freezing. I have looked at all the training videos and all are brilliant so I am at a loss of where to go from here. I think I will change my flying location
and go where there is more room. I fly mostly in the road just outside my home and I think the panic is setting in because I an frightened of hitting a neighbours house or car when the heli goes over 6 feet in height. I've got to do something I'm getting really fed up of
changing parts. Thanks both. Cheers
 
Tony

Tony

Staff member
Watching the videos will do nothing. You need to implement them in real life. Don't try to run before you can crawl. Start with the hovering, then move around "slightly", then a little more. I have a feeling you are trying to go "too big". Just slow down and get back to the basics. They are boring, but VERY important.
 
Lee

Lee

Well-Known Member
The worst place to fly is in your street. Get out to an open field with no distractions to put you off.
You can fly, you know you can. You fly planes and gliders for years. Just think of it as a plane. You bank give slight up elevator to stop it from falling, and rudder to turn. And get it high, so you have time to recover. The only difference in flying a heli over a plane is the hovering, but even when hovering, think of it as moving forwards constantly like a plane. This helped me with orientation.
Keep at it, it will come. :)
 
Westy

Westy

LEGEND
Absolutely .... and ... go somewhere safe and open ... so you do not have that niggle in the back of your mind. one less thing to worry about.

forget circuits and that stuff for now .... Tail in .... nose left.... nose right ... landing and take offs .... and practice the same drills .... feel how the heli takes off ... note how much rudder and cyclic you are putting in at the times needed to get a steady nice controlled vertical take off.

Imagine a 3 foot square in your take off zone ... and try to stay within it...... I used to get chalk and mark out 300mm x 300mm and hover .... and if I drifted out of that box ... by more than 300mm..... I would land and reposition and restart again.... these things make it instinctive and you will thank yourself later that you have that nice safe tail in to return you when you do go venturing out with the heli.
 
T

treff

Active Member
Thanks very much guys it really is appreciated. Landings, taking off is not the problem. Hovering is not the problem. It's just when I get over head height for some unknown reason I go into panic mode and freeze. Like Lee
said I have been flying planes for longer than I can remember so I can not see why my brain is freezing up. Maybe Lee is right I'm thinking to much heli and not enough plane. Yes I really do need to find an open flat space here to
practice without the fear of hitting something other than the ground. Thanks again guys. Cheers
 
Slobberdog

Slobberdog

Well-Known Member
Westy said:
Absolutely .... and ... go somewhere safe and open ... so you do not have that niggle in the back of your mind. one less thing to worry about.

forget circuits and that stuff for now .... Tail in .... nose left.... nose right ... landing and take offs .... and practice the same drills .... feel how the heli takes off ... note how much rudder and cyclic you are putting in at the times needed to get a steady nice controlled vertical take off.

Imagine a 3 foot square in your take off zone ... and try to stay within it...... I used to get chalk and mark out 300mm x 300mm and hover .... and if I drifted out of that box ... by more than 300mm..... I would land and reposition and restart again.... these things make it instinctive and you will thank yourself later that you have that nice safe tail in to return you when you do go venturing out with the heli.
Click to expand...

Treff have to agree with what Westy is saying here,

I have been practicing on the sim now for a couple of weeks, but what i can do in the sim does not translate to my heli, for me its trying to get the movements and reactionns of the heli down,

as like you i am scared of crashing my heli's, well my 450 anyway thats why i went for the 130x, but i am only using it once or twice a week at the moment and starting to get more comfortable with tail in, nose left and right, have found i am in no rush and that has helped me loads.
 
Westy

Westy

LEGEND
and practice snapping the tail back to tail in ...from all directions .... you are comfortable with ..... that way when something does go wrong... you are rehearsed into tail in recovery instinctively .... no hesitation.... you will find your accident rate will go down.

- - - Updated - - -

yep .... we all have those moments .... I had that time on one of my vids my son shot of my Trex 600 ... and i had a brain freeze with the heli bearing down on me mid circuit and i pushed forward cyclic ..... instead of slowly pulling back .......and nearly got us both a free hair cut! ...... managed to just REACT .... as you practice to recover so many times .... it was good to see first hand the practice paying off.!

- - - Updated - - -

Slobberdog said:
have found i am in no rush and that has helped me loads.
Click to expand...

That my friend is the "QUOTE OF THE DAY" - there is no rush .... no pressure .... just you and the heli as one ..... Jedi Mantra hahahha
 
Karubah

Karubah

Member
This is a very informative thread. THANKS Treff, for bringing this up, I thought it was just me that this was happening too. Thanks to everyone who replied to This thread as it has given me an uplift to know that I'm not alone in having brain freeze. I do have the open spaces to fly in but it's about having faith in your reactions if something does go wrong. I still have trouble with switching from tail in to tail out and figure that if I keep going it will come eventually. No problems at all with the quad even in manual mode. Might have to build you trainer Tony, it might help as well.
 
Lee

Lee

Well-Known Member
Flying a plane is the biggest help for orientation to flying your heli around.
 
stokke

stokke

Well-Known Member
I feel ya Treff. I'm also in your situation now - after crashing the Gaui. I've had "the nerves" many times. The only cure I have found is to keep flying!

Only tip I got is to practice tail in. Tail in hover has to be ingraved into your brain, second nature. Tail in is my safe zone, I'm perfectly comfortable in this position. As long as I can return to tail in, I'm good.
 
Westy

Westy

LEGEND
Karubah said:
This is a very informative thread. THANKS Treff, for bringing this up, I thought it was just me that this was happening too. Thanks to everyone who replied to This thread as it has given me an uplift to know that I'm not alone in having brain freeze. I do have the open spaces to fly in but it's about having faith in your reactions if something does go wrong. I still have trouble with switching from tail in to tail out and figure that if I keep going it will come eventually. No problems at all with the quad even in manual mode. Might have to build you trainer Tony, it might help as well.
Click to expand...

Yep we all have those little curves of learning.... Some :cower: quit ... some :moody: cuss ... most of us CRY :sorrow:...

But some of the best words I try to remember in those times ... is " Frustration is simply the dawning of breakthrough, discovery, wonder & Amazement"

Imagine if Edison or Newton, Tesla, Watt..... and more importantly for us .... the greatest inventor of all

Leonardo da Vinci

Had Quit...... what would we be doing with our time then!
leonardo-da-vinci-inventions.2.jpg
 
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