On Fri, 09 Feb 2007 07:55:39 -0800, Don Tuite
wrote:

On Fri, 9 Feb 2007 09:43:29 -0600, "Danny Deger"
wrote:

This is an interesting question. My first guess is you would have to have a
massively uncoordinated turn to detect it by looking out the window. If you
have rudders in your sim, try a turn with the rudder almost full left. Then
try it with the rudder full right. The only thing I can think of showing up
in the visuals would be a turn rate either more or less than it should be
based on the bank angle.

It's almost impossible to do a coordinated turn just looking out the
window in FS9 or FSX. However they are "usually" good enough. OTOH if
you have a foot get heavy on one of the rudder pedals, unlike the real
world you will never notice it until you remove your foot and the
nose abruptly swings back. Then again that tendency is not unheard of
in the real world either. "Step on the ball and put it back in the dog
house" is an oft used phrase. Coordinated turns in FSX are tighter
than most turns, but almost impossible with out looking at the ball.
OTOH I've noticed that tendency in real life as well.

I think *most* pilots who fly the same plane for years will eventually
adjust to the amount of rudder pressure required to keep the ball
centered on climb out and in turns. Not all, but most. However I'll
defer to those on the group who fly with far more pilots than I do.
I would add that after having flown the same plane for many years I
decided to rent a 172 just to play. The first time I made a turn I
rolled left and the nose seemed to go right. The instructor checking
me out sat over there laughing. He remarked, you fly like that after
how many thousand hours?


Give it a try and tell us if you can tell on your sim.

Consider boundary conditions. A slip, for example, could be
considered to be a turn so uncoordinated that there is no turn -- what
you see out the front window just goes by sideways.

Or you are laying over on your side, but going where the plane is
pointed as in slipping down final.

Another interesting phenomena. In Real Life (IRL in simmer talk) is
the slip. IRL they are easy. With no tactile feed back in the sim
they can be very difficult. OTOH they will tell you how well the
flight dynamics have been modeled. In the sim they are done strictly
by what you see outside.

For instance, in the Deb I'm used to doing full deflection slips. Slow
to maneuvering speed, roll left and add right rudder to keep you
pointed straight. Use just enough aileron to require full rudder
deflection. This takes a fair amount of strength both to over come
the aerodynamic loads and the aileron to rudder interconnect. In the
sim there is no such feedback with stick and rudder pressure remaining
unchanged. BTW it can give some pretty spectacular rates of descent in
the Deb. If you are only interested in losing altitude in a hurry you
drop the gear and do as above, but you will find a bit more aileron is
available. This puts you in a steeply descending fairly slow turn and
I'd not recommend it except in an emergency. For one if you have any
passengers along it'll scare the crap out of them along with the
likely hood of dinner as well, but it's described in the emergency
maneuvers section of the POH.


Don
Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com