Up, Up and Away

Let's talk about.....

Rudder…..rudder…..rudder…..rudder….rudder…..rudder…..rudder…..rudder..
....rudder…..rudder…..rudder…..rudder….rudder…..rudder…..rudder…..rudder..
..rudder…..rudder…..rudder…..rudder….rudder…..rudder…..rudder…..rudder..
.......rudder…..rudder…..rudder…..rudder….rudder…..rudder…..rudder…..rudder..
...rudder…..rudder…..rudder…..rudder….rudder…..rudder…..rudder…..rudder..
........rudder…..rudder…..rudder…..rudder….rudder


Today, I’d like to start off by talking about that pesky little flappy thing that is attached to the back of the vertical stabilizer, the bane of my existence, the thorn in my side, the Rhett to my Scarlet….yes, we’re talking about the rudder. Personally, I think it’s waaay over used and it’s importance is the subject of much hyperbole. Therefore, I have set out on a quest to ban, if not outlaw its use. I mean if the FAA *MAKES* me use it, then isn’t the government violating the First Amendment’s ban on establishment of a preferential control surface? After all, if we show partiality to coordinated flight, won’t uncoordinated flight become jealous?....So, I’m starting my own organization Pilots Against Rudder (PAR). I’m on mission. We can even have a flyin every year and the whole aviation community can come to my back yard and poor money into my pockets. You can call me "Jefferezny". Only Ercoupes and high dihedral airplanes allowed. Just a thought…..I’m sure the ACLU would spend money helping me…..Sorry.....on to the lesson.

We got off to a decent start today. I got there on time, forgot my keys (again), but with the backup set grabbed, we were good to go. I preflighted without missing anything worth Kary stopping me for. We ran the checklists again, started up (with a little cool weather coaxing) and we’re off. The main goal for today was take-offs and landings, so we taxi on out, and off we go. Did I mention I had to use the rudder during this part?

During the hour, we were able to get in about 6 or 7 take-offs and landings, some were touch-n-goes, some were full stop. All were a bit different than the last and I found myself actually getting comfortable with the idea of putting this thing on the ground.

The first couple of circuits were just normal T&G’s with me still trying to figure out this low, slow, nose in the air, high power, rudder combination. I finally figured out that my tendency was to try to push left rudder when I was turning left crosswind and left downwind. The problem with this is that we’re still at full throttle and 75ish, so we’ve got our nose stuck up in the air pretty good and the left turning tendencies are still very much evident at this point. So, left rudder isn’t required….just LESS right rudder than I’d been holding since we started rolling. Now, I figured this out on my own, so you’d think I’d be able to apply it on my own. Again, no. Seems every turn from crosswind to downwind came with a swooshing high-speed gust of wind that made the plane rock like a babies crib and the tail swoosh around (Kary said it was my feet….but I don’t think he was paying attention to the microbursts that I was seeing).

ARGH! I will get the hang of this!!!….I have to break the thought that left aileron always equals left rudder (and visa versa). They are 2 independent controls that should be used independently. Now, usually when you move one, you’ll move the other. But there is no fixed ratio that says “move the aileron X and the rudder will have to be moved Y”. It’s all about feel, and as Kary says “you push it “enough””. My calculator doesn’t have a button for “feel” or “enough”, so I have to make myself stop “thinking” about what I’m doing and just do it. Sounds easy…doesn’t it?

Rudders aside, we worked on soft and short field takeoff’s and soft-field landings. As I figured out during my last lesson, this whole flying thing is about understanding how much input is needed to get the desired result. Just like being 15 and learning how to judge how far you are from the white line on the highway, flying this plane is about how pulling a little on the yoke does this or pushing does that.

During a couple of my landings, Kary noted that I kept wanting to flare too high. I’m still working on judging my altitude over the runway, so left to my own devices, I probably would have flared too high. But, honestly, in both of these cases I didn’t MEAN to flare that high, I just eased back too hard on the yoke. If someone could invent a real-life VCR that would let you rewind to short final after every landing, you could get your license in an afternoon :)

If I could sum up my experience so far, it has been GREAT. Early on frustration came from not knowing when to do what or IF I was supposed to do something at all. For instance, I’m just now becoming comfortable with the idea that *I* have control over the throttle in the plane. Sounds funny, because Kary has always made me do it, but from the first lesson I was just the marionette to Kary’s puppet master. He'd tell me to add power, so I added power. The thing I’m starting to really enjoy is the strings are starting to be cut and some of the control falls on me.

A good example of this was today as we were turning from downwind to base during one circuit, I added a tad bit of power just to see what the plane would do and how it affected my speed and descent (I needed my nose down to stop my deceleration, but I didn’t want to dive at the ground). Of course, I was high when everything came together at the numbers, but hey….I figured out that it’s NOT what I need to do again. It makes it much more enjoyable (and I learn much more) when I’m not scared to touch things and if I have some idea of what I can do and not do without bending anything. I have to respect the fact that we’re 1000 ft in the air (or 10 ft), but can’t be afraid of the famous last words….”Hey, what’s this button do?”.

By the way, did I mention I need to work on my rudders?

jf

posted by Jeff Franks @ 6:41 PM