Flying enthusiasts often want to try out every experience under the sun, and that includes both helicopters and planes. Flying a helicopter (or any rotary craft) is a significantly different experience to flying a fixed wing vehicle such as a plane, bringing new challenges but unique rewards as well.
Manageability and sensitivity
Pilots who have flown both helicopters and planes often state that a plane is more manageable. Whilst with a plane you can glide through the air, with a helicopter you need to stay totally in control all the time. Many pilots actually prefer helicopters for the very reason that they are more responsive to the controls and more ‘manoeuvrable’. For the same reason, other pilots find fixed wing aircraft preferable – there is no need to worry about going off course due to a slight pressure on the controls! What is clear, though, is that flying a helicopter is always sure to be an exhilarating and exciting experience.
The ability to hover
Perhaps you have heard the story that sharks need to keep moving in order to stay alive? The same may be said of planes: in order to stay in the air, they need to be moving at all times. This is because planes generate lift through motion. When flying a plane, therefore, you cannot hover in a single, static spot. By contrast, when flying a helicopter, you can choose to hover over a single spot whilst staying high up in the air. This is because helicopters generate their lift not through the motion of the craft as a whole, but by the rapid spinning of the rotors.
Can anyone fly a helicopter?
You do not need to have had specialised pilot training to go for a spin in a helicopter. A helicopter experience with a qualified instructor lets you soar above the earth in a rotary craft. As well as getting your adrenaline pumping, helicopter flying experiences are visually very stunning, offering you beautiful views of the world beneath. Fields turn into patchwork quilts, rivers into lines drawn as if by a silver pen and whole cities suddenly seem tiny as you wheel above them in your helicopter. When you book one of these experiences, you do not need to actually fly the helicopter yourself if you do not want to. You can simply relax as a expert pilot takes you on a guided tour of the sky. If you know someone who loves flying experiences, then this could be the ideal gift for them on their next birthday.
Try it for yourself
Pilots’ views on the relative merits of flying a helicopter and flying a plane can differ widely. Perhaps, then, the only way to solve this question is to have a go for yourself. Try an aeroplane flying experience and then book yourself in to take a helicopter up into the air as well.
