The Language of Flying

My attempts to learn how to fly airplanes or helicopters consist mostly of hands-on trial and error and guesswork. After admitting that approach wasn't working for me (and was quite detrimental to the aircraft) I turned to flight simulation software. So far it's been mostly playing around -- flying is easy, landing not so much so.

However, my wife has decided to take it upon herself to do what I haven't yet attempted -- make a serious effort to learn to fly. She's starting with RC helicopters using RC flight simulation software.

She appears to be taking it quite seriously judging from the reading and note-taking she's doing. She's developing a methodical approach which includes learning the terminology of RC flight -- starting with terms related specifically to controlling the RC helicopter in flight. Together we've put together a collection of glossary terms that she says are part of the reason she's going to learn to fly before I do (we'll see about that!).

If you're trying to learn how to fly RC helicopters learning these terms -- some of which apply to both airplanes and helicopters -- may prove helpful:

• Aileron
• Collective
• Elevator
• Tail
• Throttle
• Torque Reaction
• Yaw