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Question re using rudder

W

wsmwsm

Charter Member
I have an Saitek X-52 flight system. No rudder peddles. The stick controls the rudder. By turning -but not bending the stick - the rudder is activated. Naturally, bending the stick activates the aelirons and banks/rolls the aircraft.

Except for taxiing purposes, I never use the rudder. My question then: how is the rudder properly used in flight and what does it accomplish? Also, given that the rudder is activated by the stick, how can you employ both the aelirons and the rudder at the same time. . .or don't you?

Thanks.
 
I'm not a RL Pilot so I don't know if this is how it's supposed to be done or not. What I do is bank the plane into a turn with the ailerons and use the elevator to turn the aircraft, but I use the rudder to control the the attitude of the plane and keep the nose up as not to lose altitude (example, Bank left, pull back on stick and add right rudder to maintain elevation). Also when you are lining up for a shot on another plane the rudder can allow you to be behind and slightly off center the target plane and then slew the nose on him for a shot.

I have the same stick and you can use the rudder feature at the same time as you are moving teh stick in other directions.
 
Like CADFather says. Also when closing on an opponent you can use the rudder to 'walk' the guns' impact along the fuselage/wing/engines for more damage. It's what the original pilots did.

If you fly the missions as far as landing the aircraft, you're not going to land successfully in a crosswind without using the rudder.
 
Side slipping (which is incredibly useful), low level nose-orientation (during landing and take-off for example) and generally fine-tuning your attitude. Bear in mind that when you're banking at 90 degrees to the ground, your rudder becomes your elevator.

The reflexes aren't there when you have a twist-grip stick. I also have the X-52, which is a brilliant piece of kit, and I've used it for some years. But what really opened it up was getting the rudder pedals that go with it. You get a degree of control of the aircraft that you simply didn't have before, and the movements are the correct ones. You can't twist the stick on a Spitfire...
 
The simple answer is that the rudder controls stability of flight around the vertical axis of the aircraft. A propellered aircraft tends to pull or yaw the nose to one side due to the highspeed rotation of the prop in one direction. This effect is called P-factor and is more pronounced when the aircraft is in a nose high attitude at slower speeds like the aircraft attitude would be in take off. The airplane also tends to yaw side ways in a crosswind landing (or take off). Applied rudder will stabilize the vertical axis and straighten out the aircraft in forward motion so it is not in a sideways profile at touchdown.

In a turn the aircraft tends to skid like the tail end of a car thats going too fast in a curve. The rudder input will help to counter that effect and enable a coordinated turn. In normal flight the P-factor has a slight effect which you will see reflected in the slip skid indicator when the ball is slightly right or left of center. In this case rudder is required more for efficient flight than control of the aircraft. If you have rudder trim however you should be able to effect normal cruising flight without needing to hold any rudder pressure. I think most of the WWII birds had rudder trim but some civilian aircraft like small cessnas do not have rudder trim.


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