If you’re flying a helicopter with a single rotor and a tail rotor (or a NOTAR system), you’ll need to provide some pedal input to keep the nose pointing straight when performing several maneuvers, such as taking off, for example.
Some may have stability augmentation systems (SAS) but this is valid for most helicopters with this configuration.
This means that during those operations – starting with taking off – expecting which pedal to push helps a lot. Especially since we don’t have the benefit of physical sensation in a sim.
When you start a flight on a sim, chances are that you know enough about the helicopter to figure out some of these details. So, you’ll probably know which pedal you’ll expect to push. But, sometimes, you may not be sure, or you don’t remember.
Wait a second. Which pedal to push? Don’t all helicopters work the same way?
Note: If you already know this, feel free to jump to the tip section below.
Well yeah, they work in the same way, but sometimes some things… They don’t.
When looking from above, some rotors spin clockwise, and some rotors spin counterclockwise. And, therefore, torque forces will affect the fuselage in opposite directions.
This happens because the main rotor torque tries to spin the helicopter fuselage in the opposite direction of the rotor.
For more information check out our article about how controls interact with each other.
As a general rule of thumb (though exceptions exist), rotors on American helicopters (like Bell or Robinson) typically spin counterclockwise, while European helicopters (like Airbus or Leonardo) usually spin clockwise.
For helicopters that have rotors that spin clockwise, you’ll need to push the right pedal. For helicopters whose rotors spin counterclockwise, you’ll need to have left pedal input.
Right, that’s easy. So, what’s the tip you talked about?
You can look for information on how the rotor spins or you can look at the rotor and imagine how it looks from above. That does it.
But there’s a really easy way to do it from inside the cockpit. This is especially easy if you are starting up and the rotor is spinning slowly.
When seated in the cockpit and looking forward, notice how the blades pass in front of you:
- If they're moving from left to right, press the right pedal.
- If they're moving from right to left, press the left pedal.
So, blades moving right means right pedal, and blades moving left means left pedal.
Stupidly simple, isn’t it?
