On Mon, 31 Jul 2006 08:06:07 -0400, Ron Natalie
wrote:

While the horizontal component of lift is what pulls
you to the interior of the turn, the tail is VERY important to
actually "turn" the aircraft direction
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so that the horizontal
component continually gets pointed to the center of the turn.
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Now that's a VERY interesting way of thinking about it.

What got me thinking about all this was the observation that I found
it difficult to keep the ball exactly centered in a 50-degree bank, so
I started thinking about whether it's even possible to do this in a
60-degree bank. In theory, in a 60-degree bank, the angle of attack,
controlled by the elevator, has to be such that 2g of lift is
generated. However, in a steep bank, the rate of turn is mostly
controlled by the elevator. The rudder's forces are mostly acting
vertically, so it has a large effect on whether the nose is pointing
up or down.
If you keep the nose roughly horizontal with the rudder, and 2g of
lift with the elevator, you've no controls left to affect the rate of
turn.
Do the forces in this case work out such that the ball is centered?

Any areobatic piliots out there? Is the ball typically centered in a
60-degree bank?

Tim.