Flight Controls
The flight control system is what turns pilot input into flight directional commands. The in and out motion of the servos translates the cyclic and collective input of the pilot to flight direction based off the swash plate angle. The swash plate should be a mirror image of pilot input. When the pilot pushes forward on the cyclic, control rods and bell cranks turn this forward input into forward flight. However, due to the laws of physics, when a helicopter changes direction, the requirements for lift also changes. If a pilot was to simply push forward on the cyclic and expect the helicopter to simply go forward, he would end up crashing as the helicopter looses altitude. In order to avoid this, the pilot must also apply enough collective in order to keep the helicopter along it's intended path. Once forward airspeed is established, aerodynamics greatly aid in the stability of a helicopter and ease the requirements of the pilot in forward flight. Unlike an airplane pilot, a helicopter pilot has to work both hands and both feet all the time in order to maintain a stable flight trajectory. For this reason we see the huge assortment of flight augmentation systems in helicopters today. SAS (Stability augmentation system) greatly aids in flying a helicopter as gyroscopes determine a helicopters attitude and gps, vor and fm homing systems determine the helicopters direction. When working, SAS systems take a great deal of the workload in flying a helicopter off of the pilot.