I have figured out a way that, in my opinion, makes helicopter control easier with an ordinary joystick by using the neutral adjustment feature in the sensitivity settings. Briefly, the method involves shifting the neutral point of the cyclic and collective in hover so the sensitivity settings can be increased to make for finer control.
I have tried flying helicopters for years in several different flight simulators, and although I can get most models up and down safely I have never been able to fly helicopters smoothly or consistently. Especially in hover, no matter how hard I tried it is difficult to keep the helicopter steady in hover like real helicopters. I came to the conclusion, as have many others, that ordinary joysticks just don’t offer the fine control needed for stable, consistent hover. I know real helicopters offer much longer throws that allow more precision. Some people buy special, expensive helicopter controls with longer throws to get the precision needed but aside from the expense I just can’t just justify special controls because I mainly fly fixed wing planes.
In thinking about this problem I kept wishing that it was possible to use the sensitivity settings to yield the fine control needed in hover. I have tried adding sensitivity (or exponential) in the past but it never works because usually the joystick has to be held a long way off the center point in hover, putting it in the part of the sensitivity curve where the sensitivity starts to get coarser. In thinking about this I thought how nice it would be if you could hover with the stick centered like a fixed wing plane in level flight. Then you could add as much sensitivity as you wanted because it would add the fine control exactly where you need it and you wouldn’t be fighting the spring. It then occurred to me that if the neutral point in hover could be somehow shifted to the joystick center then you could add the sensitivity needed. Too bad, I thought, that there is no way to shift the neutral. Then I remembered that there is a neutral adjustment in the settings that I had never paid any attention to before. It turns out that with a bit of trial and error you can hover a helicopter with the stick centered using this neutral adjustment. Even better you can get much finer control of the collective when at hover power by shifting the neutral point of the collective.
Here is how you make the adjustments needed. Set up a test flight with calm wind.
Take off and get into a stable hover a few feet off the ground. Make a note of where the stick is in hover. Maybe it is about a third forward or below the joystick center point and a little right, for example. Also note the position of the collective. You might be using only about a quarter of the total throw, for example. Now go into control options. Unfortunately to use this technique you will need to set up a different profile for each helicopter type because the neutral is different for each. Copy your helicopter profile and label it for the helicopter model you are adjusting. Now click on the sensitivity setting button and add a lot of sensitivity to the cyclic (X and Y axis). Try -50% up and down and left and right to start. Also add maybe -50% to the collective.
Now adjust the neutral settings for the cyclic and collective. You will see that when the neutral is centered the value is 0. On the X axis, which is lateral or left and right, add to this value if you need to shift the neutral to the right and subtract to move it to the left. You’ll need a negative setting to move the neutral to the left of center. In the above example where the stick is a little to the right add maybe +10% to shift the neutral point to the right. For the Y axis, or forward and back, add to the value to move the neutral backward (or up in a fixed wing plane) and subtract to move the neutral forward or down. In the above example you might try -30% or -35% to shift the neutral point forward (down) to match the about one third forward position you observed in your test. Also shift the neutral of the cyclic.
Now test the settings. It will probably require some trial and error to get the exact neutral point you need. The goal should be that when in a stable hover the stick should be centered. You will still need to make many small adjustments around neutral but the up/down and left/right stick movements should about the same around the center.
If you get the collective set right moderate movements of the collective should result in only very small movements of the helicopter up or down. I have realized that getting finer control of the collective may be even more important than centering the cyclic. It is so nice to be able to move the collective a moderate amount and see the helicopter just slowly ease up or down.
You can also adjust the neutral on the rudder (or anti-torque) pedals. For models that require left pedal I made a setting with -50%. For the Cabri G2, which needs a lot of right pedal, I used +80%.
A potential objection to this method is that when using a lot of stick movement in forward flight you enter the coarser part of the sensitivity curve. This doesn’t bother me because helicopters are much more stable in forward flight and you can adjust the trim in most types of helicopters. Once you add trim it helps to take it off before hovering to land so it is useful to assign “rotor trim reset” to a joystick button.
If you would rather keep a linear control for all joystick positions it is possible to add sensitivity by using the extremity dead zone setting instead of adjusting sensitivity. The disadvantage is that you reduce the total control authority. I have experimented with this and even when using a lot such as 60% it works surprisingly well. Losing that extreme control authority doesn’t seem to matter much in hover and you can usually use trim in forward flight. For now, however, I’m happy to keep using the sensitivity setting.
I hope this method helps. For me, one of the most gratifying results of this technique is with the FlyInside Bell 47. As many who own this helicopter have found, it is almost impossible to fly using the realistic setting and I always found this frustrating. Now, using this technique I can fly it easily in the realistic setting.
