Bad habits don't discriminate based on titles. Sadly, titles can more easily
pass on those bad habits as best practices. The rudder first approach is
something gleaned by many pilots from the stories about a few marginally
controllable "super gliders" from a previous generation of the sport. Its
reapplication to certain "underruddered" two-place training gliders shows a
remarkable lack of understanding of coordination.

Here's the crux of the problem... the rudder first approach is most
effective at low speed, when the ailerons produce the greatest adverse yaw
and the vertical stabilizer has less righting force. When is coordination
most important?

To make your argument I'd focus on the following:

Lack of coordination is universally discouraged. Any training regimen which
promotes lack of coordination needs to justify it based on both increased
controllability AND uncompromised safety.

Generally, all sailplanes require more rudder with less aileron at low speed
to remain coordinated. Shouldn't pilots be taught to discern the difference
in control effectiveness throughout the speed range rather than to simply
using an expedient that "works" in one case?

If you teach someone from the outset to lead with rudder, isn't it likely he
will continue this practice for ALL aircraft and in all conditions?

Modern aircraft are built to standards of controllability. Does your model's
operator's manual suggest leading with the rudder? If not, why not?

And finally, from an aesthetic point of view, it's just plain sloppy. As a
CFI, I'd question the abilities of a pilot who couldn't make a coordinated
turn in a modern glider (SGS 2-33 included) all the way down to MCA. Slewing
the nose before banking... every time you turn? My comment to the pilot
would be to fly the glider you're in, not the one you're fantasizing about.

;-)


"sisu1a" wrote in message
...
Hi All,

An SSA 'Master' CFIG I know is perpetually hammering it into his
students that to initiate a turn in a glider, the FIRST thing you do
is feed in rudder. On his 1-5 list of making a turn in a glider, #1 is
rudder (as it's own separate input). While this may be aerodynamically
acceptable practice for a 2-33, it seems a recipie for disaster in
other ships to begin a turn by intentionally skidding. Since in a
pinch, one has a tendency to revert to instincts that were first
learned/practiced (right OR wrong), I see this as a setup for possible
future problems.
Since I have issues with this, I want to gather some other opinions
(particularly those of other CFI's) to help present a case to
possibly get this corrected. He holds little value of MYopinion, so I
was hoping to get some 'name brand' opinions to help my case. And if I
am just putting to much into this, I would rather hear it from this
group.

-Paul