During my last BFR, we practiced rudder hardover maneuvers in the ASK21. We explored the high-sideslip flight regime in which the rudder would remain against its stop on its own until pulled towards center with the opposite pedal.

The point of the exercise was to demonstrate how it could be a surprise if you weren't prepared for it, but that it was not very hazardous in and of itself. "Hardover" is kind of a misnomer; the forces required to pull the rudder off the stop are relatively modest.

The rudder pedal return springs in most gliders are fairly weak, and I rather doubt that they would put you into a hardover on their own. However, if you're flying around with 50 lbs of pressure on each pedal and one of the cables breaks, that might do it, depending on a variety of factors.

Of course, combining a hardover sideslip with a rudder control failure could be very problematic, and I'm not sure what the most appropriate response would be. In the moment, I think I'd explore using adverse yaw to get the rudder off the stop, at least to the degree allowed by altitude.

I'm still waiting to see what the NTSB report says about the Arcus accident.. Dave will tell us about it when he's ready.

--Bob K.