I had a trial lesson today!

I had an hour introductory lesson in an R22 today and loved every minute of
it. I've flown r/c helis and simulators for years so I was expecting to
have a lot of control familiarity, but I wasn't expecting it to be so
exhausting! The instructor introduced the controls to me one at a time and
I flew for most of the hour by cyclic alone, returning to the field every
quarter of an hour to give me another control to handle in the hover. After
45 minutes I was sat there 6 feet off the floor with all three controls
holding a messy hover. I was very surprised by just how sensitive the R22
is. I barely had to flex any leg muscle at all to move the nose and cyclic
inputs were barely perceivable. I started to loose it after about a minute
in my "hover" and suggested the instructor might like control back. "No,
you can get it back" was the reply and I did, albeit with a little more
over-control, oscillation and wobbles. After that I got to rest my aching
hands (no matter how many times I tell myself to loosen my grip and relax,
two minutes later I was pumped up gripping for life again!) and he showed me
what he could do: backwards figure-8s at about 30 kts, plus a 2000ft auto
with a 720 degree turn in for good measure. Exhilarating!!!

Si