I did the cyclic training lesson, and heard “recommend you get more cyclic and collective practice before moving on to the next lesson” with a stupid “B” rating 93% hover alt, 83% control your position, but only 40% “Make a soft landing” because it took two “out of control hover/landing” attempts before successfully putting it down controlled.
It seemed to require more cyclic input than I normally use, but putting the bird back on the helipad at the end of my flights is my biggest challenge, and I often “loose it” in confined landing situations or when I have to turn 90 onto the helipad from my hover taxi.
I completed the hovering flight lesson with
- Maintaining alt: 68%
- Keep position and heading: 59%
- Hover Taxi: 62%
- Make a soft landing: 55%
- Total “B”
I had one “Lets start over with that” where I lost control sliding backward, then I did better the rest of the lesson.
The toughest is the transition from assisted to non-assisted. In normal flying there is never a situation where you aren’t already with the controls in the needed position. Even when I don’t have control in the lesson, I tend to be flying the cyclic and anti-torque as if I was and the bird does seem to be listening to my inputs, then he announces “I’m going to stop helping you” and there is a brief recovery moment where I have to find where the controls should have been. That is the toughest part of the lessons for me.