08/31/2026
🚁 Mission Ready Monday: What Does the Pilot Actually Do?
Besides sitting up front, looking cool, and “Ubering” our patients and medical crew around 😎🚁, our pilots actually have their hands—and feet—busy flying the EC135!
Today, let’s look at three of the controls they use: the cyclic, collective, and pedals.
🕹️ The Cyclic
The cyclic is the control stick located in front of the pilot and controls the helicopter around its pitch and roll axes.
➡️ Pitch — moves the nose up or down
↔️ Roll — banks the helicopter left or right
The pilot makes small, precise cyclic inputs throughout the flight, especially while hovering, taking off, approaching a scene, and landing.
🚁 The Collective
The collective is located beside the pilot’s seat. Raising or lowering it changes the pitch of all the main rotor blades at the same time, changing the amount of lift the rotor produces.
⬆️ Raise the collective = increase blade pitch and lift
⬇️ Lower the collective = decrease blade pitch and lift
The collective is an important part of controlling the helicopter’s climb and descent and is used together with the other flight controls.
👣 The Pedals
The anti-torque pedals control the EC135’s Fenestron, the enclosed tail rotor at the back of the helicopter. The pedals control the helicopter around its yaw axis, allowing the pilot to move the nose left or right while also counteracting main rotor torque.
So while it might look like our pilots are just sitting up front “Ubering” everyone around, they’re constantly using their hands and feet together to make precise adjustments and safely get our patients and crews where they need to go. 🚁
