[Kippesoep]

Originally Posted by Mighty Midget

About showing a 3D heli model, I'm really not sure. As a pilot, my focus is on the rotor hub (the moving end of the line) and the rotor mast (the line) and the difficulties in keeping oriented reaches an impossible level if I focus on anything else. However, I do need an indicator that shows where the nose is pointing. An arrow works fine. Or, imagine a right angled hex key, the long side being the mast, the short being the nose. The idea is to keep the amount of information the pilot has to process to a bare minimum, and all he needs to consider will be the line (mast) and an indicator/arrow (nose).

The crucial thing is, it is the circular disc's tilt- (and consequently the mast's tilt-) direction that will determin where the heli is going to move. As a circle, there is no such thing as "front", "left", "right" or "backwards". All directions are equal to a circle. The nose reference's sole purpose is to tell the pilot where he needs to move the right stick to tilt the mast in the desired direction. Therefor, a line and not a full heli model, will be the best way to learn, the way I see it. Or in other words: the disc and mast are all that really matter, the rest is only there for the ride.

The model should then be really simple. Could be a disc with an arrow sticking out perpendicular to it ("up" -- matches the axis) and another one that represents the nose ("front" -- matches the orientation, rotating around the "up" axis). Note, "front" is not the same as "forward" (which in this case can be found by projecting the "up" axis onto the ground plane, assuming no change in altitude).