WARNING: SIDETRACK--TANGENT--WAY OFF COURSE HERE

On Monday, April 20, 2015 at 6:35:42 PM UTC-5, son_of_flubber wrote:


'Wings level upright' and 'wings level inverted' gives the same reading on this instrument.

Actually it's worse than that-- the indicated turn rate (yaw rate) drops off toward zero as as the bank angle approaches 90 degrees, in which case the glider is in an extreme diving corkscrew or helix...

But again, you aren't ever going to end up there if you are watching the instrument.

In the fully inverted case, if the G-loading is still positive-- which it will be unless you are pushing the stick forward-- you won't be inverted for long. But during those few seconds that you are, if you deviate even slightly from wings-level, then if you react to the indication of the yaw rate indicator, you'll roll the aircraft toward wings-level upright. That's a good thing! Example: inverted wings-level but positively loaded, left wing drops, glider is now in a turn toward right wingtip, instrument shows right yaw, pilot gives left roll input which is indeed the shortest path toward upright. The only problem is that as the bank angle approaches 90 degrees, again the yaw rate drops toward zero...

But again, you aren't ever going to end up there if you are watching the instrument.

That's all a side-track. Let's not lose sight of the fact that the history of soaring includes many many hundreds or thousands of hours, collectively, of flying in clouds with the aid of a turn rate indicator and no artificial horizon.

S