Always add collective (Pitch) first! (Period). Collective, positive or]negative, should be added before cyclic to prevent the helicopter from stopping/stalling/hovering
in the middle of a maneuver.

Manage your power. If you add 10 degrees of collective and push in 5.5 degrees of cyclic you will bog down even a YS91 with 15.5 of overall pitch. In the hands of a pilot that uses power management and collective first the helicopter looks over powered; however, this very same helicopter in the hands of a stick bangger appears under powered with slow response due to poor management of power and inputs. One chief complaints pilots have is “my helicopter needs more power”, so they buy a big block YS80 or OS 90 and still have the problem. It’s not the power plant it's the flying style.

Your 3D or cool moves will be limited by your foundational experience. You can’t expect to fly around upside down if you can’t hover inverted, right….. You must have total control of your helo at any attitude, altitude, or angle before attempting moves like the pirouetting flip.

Jason said it took him ONE and a HALF YEARS to perfect the Pirouetting flip and the rest of his flying suffered in the mean time, Yeah sure…Suffering for him is like Tiger Woods getting 16 under par vs. 18 under par.

Say you want to do a pirouetting circles; break the maneuver down into basic maneuvers.. You must be able to input and make corrections nose in, port out, starboard in, tail in etc… before putting it all together.

Practice an out….An emergency recovery. Say you’re working on nose in, and you’re up high, if you get spooked add collective and pull out…Practice both ways.

Always easier to pirouette to the left, unloads the toque. This was not so before HH Gyros.

Steer the furthers part of the helo, i.e. “nose in” fly the tail, “tail in” fly the nose... While up right; however, when inverted fly the closest part of the aircraft…

Use your peripheral vision. Don’t be afraid of smacking into the ground. Judge where your aircraft is in relationship to where you are, the ground, and surrounding landmarks etc..

As with any vehicle, fly it! Don’t let it fly you. Use control.

Practice in-flight failures.

Don’t practice high risk maneuvers on a helicopter you can’t afford to fix.


Practice (work) up high, give yourself time and room to make corrections. Don’t just “Go for it”.

When practicing autos bump up the throttle in “Hold” at first and remove it as you become more comfortable. Dip the rotor disk so that air passes through the disk at a 45 horizontally and vertically...

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