How Helicopters Fly - The Basics! Helicopters are perhaps the most fascinating of all flying machines (well we would say that wouldn't we!) Whether travelling forwards, backwards, left, right, up, down - or even hovering still on a spot - we're often asked "How do they do that?" Helicopters have two sets of 'blades' which provide their ability to fly in any direction; the large 'rotor blades' on the top of the helicopter and the smaller 'tail rotor' at the rear of the helicopter. As these sets of blades spin around they each form a circular shape, or disk, rather like a huge frisbee. By using controls in the cockpit the pilot can change the angle of each blade as it spins which forces air through the disk shape and 'pushes' the helicopter in different directions. Helicopters have two main hand-held controls enabling the pilot to steer the aircraft through the air. The cyclic 'stick' held in the pilot's right hand controls the 'disk' formed by the rotor blades spinning above. By moving the stick gently forwards, the helicopter's swashplate at the top of the mast tilts forwards, in turn by tilting the 'disk' forwards, the helicopter moves forwards. The collective 'lever' in the pilot's left hand (which looks rather like a car handbrake) alters the pitch of each blade and increases or decreases the lift, and therefore the up and down movement of the aircraft. There are also two pedals by the pilot's feet used to control the pitch of the tail rotor blades at the rear of the aircraft to keep the helicopter balanced in flight or turn the helicopter at lower speeds. The small windows next to these pedals are called 'chin bubbles' and the pilot looks down through these when landing to see what is below. Forces such as thrust, drag, lift and weight come into play, but we'll keep to the basics on this website! This may all sound like an exercise in rubbing your stomach whilst patting your head, but helicopter pilots are kept very busy in flight as there's even more to do! At all times pilots have to be aware of their location, so map reading skills are essential. Whilst electronic navigational aids help lighten the workload, these can fail, and so a lap-held map is necessary. The pilot uses a radio to speak to Air Traffic Controllers at different airports as they fly along to let them know of their location and intentions. Air Traffic Controllers let the helicopter pilot know of other aircraft that may be near to them and any instructions such as where to re-fuel should the pilot wish to land at the Air Traffic Controller's airport. The helicopter has lots of lights on the outside so that other aeroplanes and helicopters in the sky can see it and can know which way the aircraft is flying. There is a red light on the left side of the helicopter, a green light on the right side, a white light at the back, and several flashing lights on top and often underneath. If a pilot is flying along at night and sees a red light on the right of a green light, the pilot knows that an aircraft is heading towards them! As well as lights, helicopters have several large letters painted on the outside, usually on the tail. These are the registration letters, rather like a car numberplate, and they tell us where the helicopter is registered. Those helicopters registered in the UK have a series of letters starting with "G", for example G-HELI.