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Hovering a Helicopter is Hilariously Hard - Smarter Every Day 145

Hovering a Helicopter is Hilariously Hard - Smarter Every Day 145 on HackerTube: recommended by 2 Hacker News commenters across 2 separate months, 2017–2021.

Smarter Every Day host Destin Sandlin tries to hover a helicopter and finds it very hard. The video shows how the constant coordinated corrections across several control axes feel at first and how learning makes them automatic.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN uses it as a vivid example of tacit knowledge and skill acquisition, where the brain eventually abstracts away the complexity.

people recommended it
2
separate months
2
strong recommendations
0
discussed on HN
2017–2021
“SmarterEveryDay has an interesting video[2] about learning to hover a helicopter”
— pdkl95, Aug 2018, in “What to Do After Finding Hot Connectors on Overhead Power Lines (2017) [video]”

What HN commenters said

3 Hacker News comments link this video. Each one links back to its thread.

pdkl95Aug 2018Recommends

> Those helicopter pilots must have a very steady hand. Piloting a helicopter in general requires an incredibly steady hand on unintuitive controls that interact with each other in ways that are difficult to predict[1]. Being able to do that with high precision, a disturbingly small margin of error, and fatal consequences for almost any error is basically a superpower. [1] SmarterEveryDay has an interesting video[2] about learning to hover a helicopter, which apparently requires trying to hover (badly) until the brain learns how to abstract away all of the complexity. [2] ▶ this video

in “What to Do After Finding Hot Connectors on Overhead Power Lines (2017) [video]” · View on HN

hexane360Mar 2017Recommends

▶ this video Here's a pretty good one. It appears to be constant 3-axis compensation, although he alludes to newer helicopters that have made it much easier.

in “An 85-year old millionaire hides $1M treasure in the Rocky Mountains (2016)” · View on HN

routerlJun 2021Cites it

Thanks for pointing this out. It should be said, however, that Kuhn did cite Polanyi pretty extensively. Related: Destin, at the Smarter Every Day YouTube channel, has been kind of sliding into the same distinction Polanyi outlined, between "tacit knowledge" and explicit knowledge. Destin would label those "understanding" and "knowledge", respectively, but he has a lot of neat demonstrations of this distinction, e.g. riding a backwards bicycle[0], or hovering a helicopter[1]. [0] [link] [1] ▶ this video

in “Kuhn's Structure of Scientific Revolutions – outline (2013)” · View on HN

Topics & tags

Everyday physics & science demosAviation & aerospace engineeringPsychology & human behaviorhelicoptertacit knowledgelearningcontrol systemssmarter every day