Hovering a Helicopter is Hilariously Hard - Smarter Every Day 145

Hey, it's me Destin, welcome back to Smarter Every Day. If there is one thing that I learnt from the backwards bicycle experiment, it is that knowledge is not understanding. So a couple of years ago when I made the YouTube series about helicopter physics, I gained the knowledge of how they worked, but not really the understanding. So today on Smarter Every Day, I'm going to try hover a helicopter. I've heard it's the hardest thing you can do, specifically the Robinson 22 because it's a pure helicopter, there is no augmentation.

So today on Smarter Every Day, we're going to learn what goes into doing that and what her brain is doing. It's really quite incredible. Let's go get Smarter Every Day. I'm going to be straight up with you, I'm convinced that helicopter instructor pilots are either complete idiots, or incredibly brave. I mean think about it. They get into a helicopter with someone they've never met and give them the controls.

Destin: This is my first rotary -

Brandon: crash course.

Destin: No! I don't want to take a crash course.

Notice that the controls are actually connected together, which means if I do something stupid, Brandon has to wrestle the controls out of my hand, or just trust that I'm going to let go. That's crazy. Anyway, watch how bad I fly every single time he gives me the controls - and you can easily tell when he takes back over.

Brandon: Almost got it, there you go. Pedal to your heading.

Brandon: (laughs)

Destin: crap.

Destin: So I'm going to try that, we're going to taxi down.

Brandon: Yep.

Brandon: So you have the controls.

Destin: I have the controls.

Destin: Okay you got it - laughs.

Brandon: Alright so you have the cyclic, alright just try to hold this in this spot.

Destin: Alright.

Brandon: Alright let's get us back over to that left...

Destin: Good grief man.

Destin: Alright, you're going to have to take over.

Destin: You got it?

Brandon: Yep, I got it.

Brandon: A little forward.

Destin: My bad.

Destin: Jeez... Whoop, let's don't hit that sign.

ATC Chatter: Destin and Brandon laugh.

Destin: Yep, you have the craziest job in the world.

Brandon: Yep, it has its ups and downs.

Brandon: Most...(laughs)...that's an awful joke.

Destin: So there is a moment when it clicks?

Brandon: Yeah.

Destin: How long does it normally take?

Brandon: 6 - 8 hours.

Destin: (laughs) How long is it going to take me?

Brandon: 6 - 8 months.

Destin and Brandon laugh. My next instructor was Tommy. We went in the R44 because the R22 was down for maintenance. I started to watch how they teach, and I noticed if I was starting to do something stupid, their hands would get closer to the controls - and when I was doing something easy, like flying straight and level, then they get more relaxed.

Anyway, instructors call this part, when we're learning how to hover, the 'rodeo'. One of the best things that Tommy did for me was to teach me how to chill out. The thing I was doing was called a: I was basically freaking out and over controlling, which made the whole aircraft wobble. Once I chilled, I was able to stabilize.

Tommy got this to click in my brain by first teaching me how delicately to operate the controls - and then showing me how two controls interact with each other.

Tommy: If you've moved the control, you've moved too much.

Destin: If you've moved the control...

Tommy: Do you see what I'm saying though?

Destin: Yeah.

Tommy: It's that whole thought process of it all.

Tommy: Alright, using the left pedal and only left pedal again, point me at that tree over there.

Destin: It's like...not even...a thought.

Tommy: Right! There you go, so something just clicked in your brain I can tell.

Destin: Okay.

Destin: Okay, I have collective, I have pedals, I'm going to try point at the stop sign - - I'm going to raise and I'm going to keep pointing at the stop sign.

Tommy: Oh yeah, look something else just clicked.

So why do you have to move multiple controls to do one simple maneuver? Turns out, THIS is the secret of hovering a helicopter. Okay, you've seen Rubik's cube solvers, right? These guys that like have it stored somewhere in their brain stem - and they can look at it and just instantly understand what they need to do right to solve the thing.

Well that's exactly what helicopter pilots are doing because if you think about it - every time you change something on a Rubik's cube, multiple inputs are changing all over the thing. It's a whole system, that's the way helicopters work. You have to come up with the most efficient and effective solution instantly to arrive at that perfect solution right off the bat. That's something you have to get in muscle memory somehow.

Okay, there are three main controls for a helicopter. The first one is what we call: collective. Collective is your power that you are applying to the rotor system. Basically, the swash-plate moves together and it rotates those rotor blades so that they're taking more or less of a bite out of the air.

Now if you think about that, when you do that, it applies more torque or less torque to the body of the helicopter, right? So you have to counter-act that with the pedals. When she moves the pedals back and forth, that, of course, gives you more or less counter-torque on the body of the whole aircraft.

Another thing that you need to think about is that tail-rotor is blowing air, so it's pushing the whole helicopter to the side, right - so the way you counteract that is what? Cyclic. Cyclic is similar to collective in that it moves the rotors in the swash-plate, only it does it independently.

You can see that it is changing the swash-plate so that the rotors are moving independently of each other. What she has to do is she has to take all three of these inputs, make them work together. Now imagine that happening several times a second, and you have kind of an idea of what's going on in Michelle's brain.

Destin: Right?

Michelle: No?

Michelle: This takes way more brain power.

Destin: (laughs) Alright, the next flight is with Michelle, who happens to be really sassy. When we got into the R22, she says "just so you know I'm a little bit more hands off," which basically meant if I got into a pilot induced oscillation, she was going to make me recover.

Destin: Am I doing this or are you doing this?...Okay, thank you.

Michelle: (laughs) I kind of didn't believe her though until she let me take off this horribly.

Destin: Golly.

Michelle: (laughing) That's one way to do it.

Destin: (laughing) You're awful.

Destin: So you ARE hands off?

Michelle: And we're off.

Destin: (laughs) She basically forced me to straighten up by taking away my safety net, but I had gotten better really fast.

Michelle: I thought you said you sucked at this?

Destin: Ah, I do suck at this.

Michelle: Eh, looks good to me.

Michelle: Alright you have the control.

Destin: So, first I'm going to take off, so that's the first thing you have to do?

Destin: I'm teaching you how to do this now, right?

Michelle: (laughs) I appreciate that.

Michelle: Perfect, there you go.

Destin: Alright...so there we are...we're hovering.

Michelle: We are hovering.

Destin: Poorly, but we are hovering.

Michelle: It's happening.

Destin: I want to try land over there.

Michelle: Okay.

Destin: And act like I know what I'm doing, even though I don't.

Michelle: I believe in you.

Destin: Okay, here we go.

Destin: I'm looking outside, looking outside, looking outside, looking outside - I'm starting to commit, starting to commit, starting to commit, and we're down.

Destin: AH.

Michelle: I appreciate you teaching me that.

Destin: (laughs)

Destin: Oh, okay, I want to hold this... BOOM.

Michelle: Very nicely done.

Okay, so Brandon was crazy enough to start with me, and I decided to end with him so I could assess my progress. By this point I could take off, navigate to wherever he wanted me, shoot an approach and even land. But remember, my goal was to be able to hover, and do it well.

Brandon had a test for that.

Brandon: There is this stick over here, I want to see if you can land on it.

Destin: Oh you want me to land with the skids ON that stick?

Brandon: Am I on it?

Destin: Yeah you are!

Brandon: I can't even...

Destin: You're on it!... Impressive!

Brandon: I want to see you put it down on that same spot.

Destin: Okay, is this like the test? If I can do this, then I...

Brandon: You go solo, right?

Destin: Dude! We're touching the stick.

Brandon: (laughs)

Destin: BOOM! Touching the stick.

Brandon: (laughs)

Destin: I'm very excited.

Destin: That's a big deal to me.

Brandon: Yeah, that's actually really good - it just helps teach you precision.

So there you go, hovering a helicopter is hilariously hard. I thought it was up for up, down for down, left and right. Oh no, it's a complex coupled control system and you have to rewire your brain to make it happen. It's pretty awesome.

Anyway, thank you to the cities of St. Petersburg and Clearwater, Florida. They invited me down and sponsored this video to let me do this, it was amazing. I got to hover a helicopter while my kids were playing on the beach below. That's amazing!

Also, there is plenty of other stuff you can do. They didn't tell me how to promote them so I'm just going to tell you what we did. We went to the Chihuly museum, which is one of the most famous glass artists in the world. There's a museum down there. Also the Salvador Dali museum. You know the guy, melting clocks, burning giraffes? There is a huge museum of nothing but awesome art.

Also, there's an MC Escher traveling exhibit when we were there. We got to meet Winter the Dolphin, you've heard of this dolphin? The dolphin that's missing its tail and they're working with it. We had a blast!

If you are looking for a place to take a vacation, please consider the St. Pete Clearwater Florida area. It's a great place just to go chill on the beach. If you get a chance, visit St. Pete Clearwater. Please consider it, I'll leave a link in the video description. Ah, thank you for sponsoring this, I appreciate that.

Anyway, I'm Destin, you're getting Smarter Every Day, have a good one.

Destin: So you don't think hovering is like that?...well you're already messing it up, I can tell you that right now.

Destin: Are you going to be a fixed wing instructor?

Brandon: No, I have no desire to be a fixed wing instructor.

Destin: Why is that?

Brandon: I don't like flying airplanes - think about it...can you do this right here in an airplane?

Destin: No.

Brandon: Alright then.

We're here with Winter, the dolphin, at Clearwater Marine Aquarium and her trainers - and your names are?

Cammy... and Julie.

Alright and this is Winter's prosthetic tail. So this is where I practiced some helicopter maneuvers. And this is the Dali museum.

Destin: But you can do that with a helicopter quickly.

Destin and Michelle laugh.