How to Take Off in a Helicopter

How to Co-ordinate the Controls to Lift a Helicopter Into the Hover

Apr 9, 2009

Taking off in a helicopter requires careful co-ordination of the cyclic, collective, and yaw pedals in order to lift off the grounds vertically and under control.

Flying helicopters is difficult, and one of the hardest things to learn is how to take off from the ground and lift into a controlled hover. An experienced instructor explains how it is done.

Readers might want to first take a look at How Do Helicopters Fly for a basic explanation of how the controls of a rotary aircraft work.

Relax and Begin to Raise the Collective

The pilot should look well ahead and relax. He or she should then start to raise the collective or lever. At first nothing will happen, but as the pitch on the rotor blades increases, the helicopter will become light on its skids. At this point the pilot should stop lifting the lever. Some instructors tell their students to ‘freeze on the collective’ at this point. It is crucial to take off vertically and under control, so now the other controls need to be used.

Using the Pedals to Prevent Yaw

Raising the collective increases the pitch on the main rotor blades. In order to prevent the helicopter turning or ‘yawing’, the pilot needs to cause a corresponding increase in the pitch on the tail rotor blades. This is done by putting in left pedal. Therefore, as the helicopter becomes light on the skids and is ready to fly, the pilot or student should use left pedal to keep the aircraft straight.

The Cyclic Keeps the Helicopter Level

The helicopter must lift off the ground vertically, or it can very easily turn over – a phenomenon known as ‘Dynamic Rollover’. So as the helicopter becomes ready to fly, the pilot must adjust the cyclic in order to keep the helicopter level.

Putting it All Together

Now, very slowly and carefully, the pilot should raise the lever further, feeding in left pedal, and using the cyclic to prevent the helicopter turning or moving in any direction. The helicopter will slowly lift off the ground and be in a hover.

Now the pilot now needs to check his instruments carefully, make a note of the wind direction, and make any necessary radio calls. He is then ready to depart and start flying.

Helicopter flying is difficult, and cannot be learned by reading about it. There is no substitute for finding a good school and instructor. However, in the future there will be more articles on different aspects of flying these fascinating machines…so watch this space, as they say!

For further information on how to fly helicopters, readers might like to take a look at:

The copyright of the article How to Take Off in a Helicopter in Aviation is owned by Helen Krasner. Permission to republish How to Take Off in a Helicopter in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.