wrote in news:3f478a4b.690241
@rsnews.rapidsys.com:

....
The amount of time you have varies depending on the weight of the
helicopter. The more mass, the easier it is to fly. If you fly a
fully gased up R22 with a fat instructor and all the instruments, you
will have an easier time than if you fly with a skinny instructor and
only a few gallons of fuel. Nevertheless, you shouldn't allow
yourself to get dependant on that little trick because you will
eventually have to fly the thing solo.

Lastly, avoid rapid movements of the cyclic. Rapidly jerking it
around in an attempt to gain control of the heli won't work. It
generally wont hurt the helicopter, but the way to get control is to
hold the thing still for a second and then determine what is going
wrong. Then apply correction. The helicopter does not respond
instantly so you have to make corrections slow.

I don't have any hard data to prove this, but I really suspect that a
first time student in their 80's would probably have an easier time
learning to hover than a 20 year old. Primarily due to slower
reflexes in the older person. I really don't think that fast reflexes
are a good thing in helicopters.

Just my two cents.

Dennis.

Unless your rotor RPM starts to dip and you are pulling lots of
collective... then you want those fast reflexes back (especially in an
R22)

John Z.