Kenny Keller shows the basic control inputs for a helicopter descent: down collective, right pedal, and aft cyclic. Students consistently under-apply right pedal, so he repeats it: more right pedal, more right pedal, more right pedal.
There's three things we do at the beginning of every descent. A little bit of down collective, a little bit of right pedal, a little bit of aft cyclic. It's the same things we do in the beginning of an auto. They're just a little more abrupt than auto. So let's start a descent. We're just going to go a little bit of down collective, a little bit of right pedal, a little bit of apt cyclic, so the nose doesn't start to drop. And then you just start flying your approach down. And the funny thing about the right pedal, you find out that you become an instructor, and it's like half the time you're driving, riding around, just going, more right pedal, more right pedal, more right pedal, more right pedal. I don't know why that is, but a student gets to that stage. So a little tip for just thinking about when you're getting ready to set up your approach. Don't forget the right pedal. What do you do? You initiate your approach by going a little down collective, a little bit of aft cyclic, and a little bit of right pedal to put that thing in trim. And then use your trim strings or turn coordinator, bubble, whatever you use normally to keep yourself in trim. Set by three with an R2. Set by three with an R 2. But people really have a problem pushing that right pedal.
