Helicopters 101 - Any professors out there ?

[smootharc]

I realize copters (and daffys, and spread eagles) are so 1970's, but skiing the other day I saw this guy casually ski to a knoll and pop a seemingly slo-mo copter, land it, and just keep a cruising along. Looked tres cool. Nice !

Anybody have thoughts, advice, and insights on good training and techniques for safely popping 'copters ?

This old skier has just decided that copters are the bees knees. Maybe I can find some 70's stretch pants on eBay....

 

[skinut]

Hey!!!

Racing stretch pants were used through 'til the late 80's. Lycra took over for racing. I still use a pair of race pants which serve me well. I like the knee and lower leg padding. I was in the woods the other day and banged both my shin and knee against fallen logs. The beauty of it all was they were discounted from $250 down to $5 when I bought them before E-bay.

 

[skidbump]

safety first ...should always remember to have a spotter for a helicopter or any other aerial...ski edges work just like a pair of giant scissors...

 

[awf170]

i keep thinking about tryin a 360 but i cant get the courage up to do it, always just do a 180, atleast im really good at that now

 

[Vortex]

2 weeks ago my brother said to my son.. you want to see a helicopeter. He was like what? I said a 360 he then understood, my brother and I had a good laugh. I still have a pair of stretch pants. Had to special order them .. Comfortable. I have a pair of obermeyer ski pants also but they get hot. Lost in the 70's and 80's. Fashion is not a concern. Trial and error on ski jump tricks got me to become a racer.

 

[hiroto]

I realize copters (and daffys, and spread eagles) are so 1970's, but skiing the other day I saw this guy casually ski to a knoll and pop a seemingly slo-mo copter, land it, and just keep a cruising along. Looked tres cool. Nice !

Anybody have thoughts, advice, and insights on good training and techniques for safely popping 'copters ?

I've been looking for that kind of info too. I started practicing with 180. Going VERY slow on almost flat slow, I can hop up, do 180 and land backward. I can do this if I'm going REALLY slow, but don't have any guts so far to go any faster, nor doing it off any jump no matter how small. I cannot imagine how I could ever get it up to 360.

 

[moguljunkie]

How about going to Lake Placid in the summer and using their water ramp to practice 360s safely?

 

[awf170]

I realize copters (and daffys, and spread eagles) are so 1970's, but skiing the other day I saw this guy casually ski to a knoll and pop a seemingly slo-mo copter, land it, and just keep a cruising along. Looked tres cool. Nice !

Anybody have thoughts, advice, and insights on good training and techniques for safely popping 'copters ?

I've been looking for that kind of info too. I started practicing with 180. Going VERY slow on almost flat slow, I can hop up, do 180 and land backward. I can do this if I'm going REALLY slow, but don't have any guts so far to go any faster, nor doing it off any jump no matter how small. I cannot imagine how I could ever get it up to 360.

i just have the problem of not being able to spin fast enough, like i can go off a could size jump( get about 6-7 ft high) with speed(about 15-20mph) and do a 180 i just have no spin. I no i have enough air. Its really annoyin

 

[skinut]

i keep thinking about tryin a 360 but i cant get the courage up to do it, always just do a 180, atleast im really good at that now

Are you stating that landing with your tail end pointed down the fall line is something you are really good at?

 

[awf170]

i keep thinking about tryin a 360 but i cant get the courage up to do it, always just do a 180, atleast im really good at that now

Are you stating that landing with your tail end pointed down the fall line is something you are really good at?

ya, you think it would be less scary to do the full spin, but i dunno im wierd like that. I could probably learn how to do it but i rarely ever go in the terrain park. Also i ussualy go to wildcat and they dont even have a terrain park. I saw some in the moguls at wildcat under the lift he was going so fast just did a 360 like nothin and kept goin... it was so cool

 

[ozskier]

You guys want me to write a "Beginners Guide To Throwing Spins" FAQ / White Paper? I've coached dozens of people on their first spins.

Why stop at 360, get in on some buttery 540's. Landing switch is where it is at.

 

[awf170]

ya that would be awsome

 

[ozskier]

This could be you!

Took that this wknd at the Vermont Freeskiing Open. I'll make a post later on tonight with the image & immersive links. I shot over 1000 images so I need to weed through to pick out the ones that are going to make the final cut.

And just for shits and giggles, here's a sequence. Sorry for the overexposed shot, I haven't had time to really clean that one up for production yet.

 

[hiroto]

How about going to Lake Placid in the summer and using their water ramp to practice 360s safely?

I would love to. I would go in a heart beat if they do anything like that at our town pond. Something I almost did this winter is to build a ramp with a pile of snow off the porch in our back yard so I can practice by landing in to a foot of nice soft snow after a one of the snow storm we had.

 

[ozskier]

Ohh yeah, if you want a water ramping FAQ I can make that happen with some pics and video too. I've been to Lake Placid for ramp & tramp camp twice. Sick times, great place to learn inverted & cork stuff.

I've got to dig up my mac and get those pics going.

 

[hiroto]

You guys want me to write a "Beginners Guide To Throwing Spins" FAQ / White Paper? I've coached dozens of people on their first spins.

Please do plase do please do. I've searched around quite a bit but never found anything like that online anywhere.

 

[ozskier]

Ok, let me see what I can do. I'll slap something together with ozskier.com / snow-360.com pageheaders and publish it up.

It probably wont be until later this week. I've got over 1000 images from the VT Open to sort for certain media outlets and that takes preference.

 

[bigbog]

awf170,
I think the original 180/360 technique USED to start with the upper body twist(ala WW_Kayaking directional movements)...initiate with the solid arm/shoulder and abdominal twist...and the hips, legs, and feet will follow, or something like that.