Baron’s Hobbies – Online Hobby Magazine

How-To Flying Tip- Pick A Point And Piro

Posted on January 19, 2009 by aaronredbaron

Pirouetting, or spinning the helicopter around on its yaw axis, is one of the foundations of advanced flying. It is a very simple and yet complex maneuver at the same time. As the Helicopter rotates through the pirouette (often abbreviated as “piro”), the pilot experiences all orientations, and over control is often the result of pilots who get lost trying to stay in control. Mastering piro maneuvers is paramount to going from an intermediate pilot to an expert. Becoming proficient with pirouetting in both directions will pave the path to all piro related maneuvers like the pirouetting flip, pirouetting loop, pirouetting tic-tock, etc. The purpose of today’s article is to provide a simple mind trick to help aspiring pilots master pirouettes.

Piros Seem Daunting At First

When a novice performs a pirouette, its usually a quick flip of the tail with no control until the model gets back to a tail-in position. It is important to slow it down and actually fly the model through all orientations. When this is first tried, the result is often over-control. Assuming you have a properly trimmed model and mild wind conditions, there are several important things to remember leading up to your pirouette.

-Let the model do its thing. If you begin the Pirouette with your rotor disk level, the model will remain level long enough through one pirouette for you to get the model back to where you are comfortable. You don’t have to make constant corrections to keep the model stable. Feeding in inputs just because the pilot isn’t comfortable with the orientation is often where things start to go out of whack.

-Practice flying your helicopter sideways and nose-in ( helicopter’s nose facing you). Eventually you will have to transition through all orientations smoothly, but it helps tremendously to get acquainted with all orientations first. Simulators are huge for practicing the tip outlined in this article.

-When you really get panicked or feel the model is in eminent danger, make sure to stop the pirouette before you make your corrections. Many beginner’s models go down because they try to maintain the pirouette all the way to the ground. Remember there is a point of no return, and you should stop the piro and try to regain control before you cross it.

Pick A Point

For most people the easiest point will be the nose, so for the purpose of this article the nose will be used for the example. However, this tip can be applied to any point on the helicopter.  Forget about any cyclic input except for the nose. You can maintain control on the helicopter with only one input as the helicopter spins. Only think about what the nose is doing, and as you maintain a constant rate piro and altitude with the left stick, your only concern with your right stick is one input, forward on the nose. If the helicopter begins to tilt and you want to maintain a hover, wait for the nose to be tilted up in the piro, and give a gentle nudge forward on the cyclic stick to level it. If you want to initiate movement, wait for the nose to come around to point in the direction you want to go and give a little nudge to tip the disk and send the model on its way.  It only takes a little nudge of one control to maintain your position, move the model anywhere you desire, or arrest the model back into a hover while the helicopter pirouettes the entire time. A simulator is always recommended, but whatever practice regime you use, try holding the model in a steady hover while pirouetting, and move the model in a controlled flight path and back into a hover while pirouetting.

As you begin to absorb this lesson in use, you can begin to work in back cyclic inputs too. You still only have to fly one point, in this case its still the nose, but now you can tilt the disk up or down at any point in the rotation. With these two inputs you can perform virtually anything you want while pirouetting, with only a slight pause in between inputs as the model comes around. If you are really feeling it, start using this tip to pirouette while inverted. Get comfortable with hovering, moving around, and stopping the motion upright and inverted, in both directions, and the world of piro possibilities unfolds. You may start to enjoy pirouetting so much you will perform long segments of your flight without letting off the tail!

When you have mastered the Technique for nose-in, try applying it to different points on the helicopter. When you can perfrom piroeuttes controlling the helicopter from any point, you will have a much easier time putting it all together and controlling the full piro without breaking it down. When this is acheived in both directions, practically any piro manuever in the book should be well within your grasp. Piroeutting Hurricanes, Pirouetting Snakes,  Pirouetting Death Spirals, and more are with the realm of possiblilities. Learning advanced piro maneuvers in both directions is the sign of a true master, and throwing in piro reversals enhances complicated maneuvers to great effect. The most complicated and graceful 3D moves all involve mastering the simple piroeutte, so go out there and get those mechanics spinning!