Learning piro flips, focus on consistency.

[ArchmageAU]

I have posted some things recently about piro flips and how I am learning them.

One of the best references is the Nick Maxwell "One Tank Tip" on pirouetting flips. It has been posted many times before and I will attach it to the bottom of this post for reference.

Single piro flips are not that hard (contrary to popular belief). The one main pre-requisite is being able to hover both upright and inverted (well maybe that is hard ).

Next is to be able to forward flip from tail-in upright, to nose-in inverted and back to tail-in upright (if you can hover inverted, this should be trivial).

The flip is the core of the movement. Notice the rotor disk movement. It always moves in that same plane. The disc never twists, it just flops over, then flops over again. For a good piro flip, this rotor disc movement is essentially the same. No twist, just flop.

The way a lot of mode 2 fliers learn a piro-flip is "the stir". This concentrates on timing the cyclic with the tail. The problem with this method is that you do not really understand what is going on and the disc often goes wonky mid-flip. When the disc goes wonky, the heli will most likely move off-axis (left or right). This is because the cyclic correction is out of phase with the tail. Great it it's intentional, not so good if happen-stance.

The better and more consistent way to learn to piro-flip is to do exaggerated half-piro flips ensuring the disc flips (or flops) properly. If the rotor disc flips identically to a normal flip, you have done it right. With the exaggerated half-piro you can practice the move at slow speed in real time (ie. you can also do this IRL ).

Like a normal flip, a piro flip has a toss-catch type feel. By using an exaggerated half-piro flip this toss-catch type feel is emphasised. When doing full speed ones the toss-catch is faster, so needs less exaggeration.

In the heli-x recording, I show a normal stir learning piro-flip (and how wonky it can be), then show exaggerated half-piro flips. As a heli-x recording it can be played back mode 1 or mode 2 with stick display. I am still learning this move so the flight is not perfect. I'll work on getting this converted to video. (Usual drill. Save .mov as .zip and unpack into the heli-x/resources/flights directory. Tested with Heli-X 4.2 unregistered).

(Now uploaded to YouTube - re-published HD)


Once you can do an exaggerated half-piro flip and full piro flip you can then start increasing the rudder spin rate and do doubles, triples and any combination in between. The focus should always be on evenly flipping the rotor and not have it twist.

As mentioned earlier, here is the Nick Maxwell video (just so you don't need to search for it).



Code3Medic did an excellent video showing doubles and more in slow motion too.



Thanks to Code3Medic, dannylightning (https://www.helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=542074) and gitbse (https://www.helifreak.com/showthread...78#post4603678) for getting me this far with this move. I'm sure there are others, but these are the main ones that come to mind.

Here is hoping my words will help shed light on this move for others.

[gitbse]

Shows what dedication and structured practice can do to skill levels. You're what.. 6 months into flying? Good on ya, as you may say.

Also a great thing to actually be able to control the machine at all times as well. That's when you can really unlock some good stuff. You've definitely got the knowledge, that's for sure. All it takes now is stick time.

Keep it up

[clicky]

I found out that learning to do piro circuits helped me with piro flips and later fixing them. I am still not really good at steep and fast piro circuits (someone would call them with more fancy name: piro hurricanes). There in piro circuits you need to move helicopter around the circuit no matter when the tail is. Tiny inputs are needed at all positions on the tail all over the circuit. It doesn't have really to be fast circuit but pirouette should be similar speed as in piro flip.

Later, when I was breaking down the piro flip (as Archmage posted somewhere else) to four distinct flips, above skill helped me to fill in the gaps - especially after when piro flip went through phase where rotor disc is at more than 45º (when it is between 0 and 45º or even 60º). There I can 'slow down' the flip itself and level the disc properly and 'fix' the speed of flip in comparison where the tail is. It worked both upright and inverted as I have been practising upright and inverted piro circuits.

I can even now see that sometimes (especially in orientations of piro flips I am not comfortable with) I rush through first part of the flip to slow down at last 60º-45º of 'corrections'. Similar thing happens when I try double piro flips - I find myself that first revolution of tail goes for more than 90º of first (or second) part of a piro flip and then slow the flip down in last 60º-ish degrees doing second full revolution.

So, I would do piro circuits before piro flips - influence and help of piro circuits is not great but, kind of, slot nicely before piro flips...

[Bee_random]

Piro circuits.. Watched somebody do these at the weekend and can't get my head around how they keep up with themselves! Could somebody break this down?

[clicky]

It is easy. Hove while pirouetting constantly. If you choose CW pirouetting then CW circuit will be more natural and other way round.

Now - while constantly pirouetting (ah, did I say you need to be confident to constantly pirouette the helicopter at the spot?) you start 'nudging' helicopter to go in direction you want it to go.

If you are not proficient enough with pirouetting, then you'll have tendency to 'nudge' heli at particular helicopter orientation(s) and your ability to do piro circuit would be somehow limited. On the other hand - if you can do very slow pirouettes proficiently and then speed them to some normal speed (1-2s revolution) and still control helicopter at ALL orientations then you have absolutely nothing to worry about.

So, nudge it to direction you want to (CCW pirouette, heli hovering pirouetting in front of you, you nudge it to the right) and continue doing it through the circuit. At the beginning they'll be slightly out of shape and no matter of speed of pirouetting slow circuits. But as you get more confident you'll speed them up and at some point add some banking to keep heli from flying out of circuit...

And, did I mention you first need to be good at slow pirouettes (pirouetting heli on the spot slowly - not faster than 6+ seconds a revolution) and then faster ones and be able to control helicopter at ALL orientation through a pirouette...

[ArchmageAU]

Originally Posted by Bee_random

Piro circuits.. Watched somebody do these at the weekend and can't get my head around how they keep up with themselves! Could somebody break this down?

The way I do it is I fall back to my all 8's and funnels training.

Pre-requisites are confidence in forwards, backward and sideways circles.

What I am doing in a piro-circuit is move from a nose-forward circle to a funnel, to a tail-first circle, then opposite funnel, then back to nose-forward circle.

The easy way to keep up is to concentrate on the disc and observe the tail in the periphery. You just note which part of the circle you are in at the time and steer appropriately (from previous training). If you get a little lost, slow down the piro.

Would you like a sim video of this? If so:

• Upright or inverted?
• Natural or counter rotation?
• Mode 1 or Mode 2 stick display?

[RogerRabit]

Try to learn SYNCHRONIZED pirocircuits first, e.g. having the chopper exact at the angels you want it.
Start them extremly slow hovering and then Speed them up.
You should be comfortable with Forward, backward, and the two sideways before.

Change from one additional to two additional piros per circuit and then the thumbs will have cought the idea.

[Bee_random]

Thanks guys! Clearly I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. I haven't got the sideways orientations down yet (this is my winter sim objective). I can see that this move is definitely going to be a practice practice practice move to learn... Although they all seem that way at the moment. Just when I think I've got something cracked, I realise that I need to finesse it to use it in the next stage of learning. But it all comes good in the end. I just love this hobby! (even if I'm a bit rubbish at the moment )

[clicky]

I'm going to be a bit boring and repetitive: you can easily forget about thinking HOW to do the piro circuits. The easiest way is to practice only slow stationary pirouettes. Nothing else. When you get to the point you can do them with your eyes closed (well, not literally) you'll find piro circuits easy and natural. If you start thinking about what to do and when - you'll learn one particular skill in controlled environment. The moment parameters go outside of exact thing you learned with - you'll struggle. If you learn to control helicopter no matter where the tail is (which slow pirouettes are teaching you) - you'll won't worry about synchronisation, funnels, what to do next if heli stopped being orientated you learn to react in, wrong inputs that mess with you head - you'll just know how to steer helicopter to direction you want, no matter where the nose or tail are.

And that skill is achieved only by putting enough hours in it. You can skip and find a short cut for particular simpler/controlled version of it - but to be genuinely able to do piro circuits you'll need proper control at any orientation and you can't achieve it by skipping to next, cooler stuff before you do the base. And that's not the easiest skill around.