Leading Turns With Rudder

On Jul 21, 11:53*am, sisu1a wrote:
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

I think we're talking about a slight difference in "timing" between
ailerons and rudder. I can't imagine this CFIG would have you actually
"yaw" the aircraft to any significant degree before applying aileron.
If that's what you're implying, then I'd say that's pretty strange.
John's post makes the most sense; "Do what you have to do to keep the
string centered."

I think the needed rudder/aileron timing depends on the ship you're
flying. Ships with pronounced adverse yaw probably need a bit more
"lead" with the rudder. Our club L-23 is like that. Every time I get
in that ship, it takes a little while to get the timing down (I don't
fly it often). With the not-so-good yaw stability and strong adverse
yaw tendency, it's quite different than my LS1f. The LS likes
"simultaneous" control input. It exhibits very little adverse yaw. I
don't have to "lead" at all with it.

I know I wouldn't want to lead too harshly entering my turn to final.
Heaven forbid if you were too slow. I'd much rather enter the turn to
final with a slight slip due to being a tad late on the rudder than
the alternative (with the obvious consequences).


Dave