Ask My Sky Mom. Aviation wit and wisdom.

Hey Mom,

I just don’t understand why exactly I need to use both ailerons AND rudder pedals to turn the airplane.  It turns just fine even if I only use the ailerons, so what’s all this noise about coordinated turns?

Thanks,

Turning Into an Adverse Situation

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Dear Turning,

If you and your instructor would just coordinate your training goals a bit better, you’d be less likely to slip into confusion!  Pardon the jokes.  Right.  So, the biggest reason we find ourselves in need of rudder input to coordinate a turn is adverse yaw. In a turn, the wing on the outside of the turn will be traveling faster than the inside wing.  With more airflow over that outside wing, it will produce more life, and you guessed it, with more lift comes more drag.  That drag will cause that higher, faster outside wing to yaw backwards, outside of the turn, and, voila, adverse yaw!  Your wing is now decidedly not moving in the direction you wanted it to.  This effect is most obvious at lower air speeds or in steeper banked turns where the differential between the speed of the inside wing and the outside wing is greater.

A little bit about the coordination of that turn.  If you get too aggressive with that rudder pedal (ball to the outside of the turn), you’ll be skidding.  If you stay off the rudder pedal or add too little (the more common error), you’ll be slipping.  Neither one is coordinated.  Your instructor will get excited and your passengers will get sick, so straighten up and fly right, already!

Your friend in adversity,

Mom

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~ by myskymom on May 25, 2009.