Aerotow takeoff with Cirrus, aileron rudder use

Perhaps a slightly different take on this....

Akiley,

Part of learning a new type is learning how much and when to apply the
inputs. You said it was only your second flight in the ship? Sounds
like you recovered quickly and didn't really have any problems. All
the very detailed discussion is useful to a point, but you might end
up over analyzing and overthinking the problem. If you continue to
drop a wing and struggle with it, then it might be useful to pull an
instructor in and help you diagnose and correct the problem. I'm more
inclined to believe it's the natural process of learning a new
sailplane. Sounds to me like you're doing well and whatever
instinctive and natural responses you had, were sufficient to raise
the wing and keep you in control.

This isn't to discount anything said by others. It's all good advice.
And using a rudder to pick up the wing will help when you move up into
even longer spanned ships.

-Kevin

I used to have a share in an early Std Cirrus (pre-washout change)
that had a particularly difficult case of poor low speed aileron
control and we used the open airbrake technique as well as lots of
rudder to keep the wings level. Many years later a friend and I
rented the same glider for a year and my friend put mylar seals over
the top and bottom surface aileron gaps (instead of the original top
surface only tape) and also installed mylar rudder seals. To my great
surprise the ground run aileron control was greatly improved -
transformed in fact - not only that but it changed from being a
vicious little spinner to rather benign at the stall.

I suspect that it is something to do with the large draggy lower hinge
line gap when the aileron is at full up deflection.

John Galloway

On 2010/07/27 12:23 PM, johngalloway wrote:
I used to have a share in an early Std Cirrus (pre-washout change)
that had a particularly difficult case of poor low speed aileron
control and we used the open airbrake technique as well as lots of
rudder to keep the wings level. Many years later a friend and I
rented the same glider for a year and my friend put mylar seals over
the top and bottom surface aileron gaps (instead of the original top
surface only tape) and also installed mylar rudder seals. To my great
surprise the ground run aileron control was greatly improved -
transformed in fact - not only that but it changed from being a
vicious little spinner to rather benign at the stall.

I suspect that it is something to do with the large draggy lower hinge
line gap when the aileron is at full up deflection.

John Galloway

Hi John

The mylar did indeed improve/transform the ailerons.
For what it is worth mine is #57 - low washout all flying elevator
model. I did try flying her once without any aileron tape - this is
definitely not recommended. Upper surface tape improves things and the
mylar top and bottom makes a substantial improvement over that.

Bruce


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At slow speed, in the first part of the take off roll, you might
actually be stalling the wing with full aileron deflection, causing it
to drop even more. I flew an open Jantar for a long time and it
worked much better to only use small stick deflections to keep the
wing from stalling until the speed comes up a bit

Boggs.