RCU Forums - View Single Post - Tips to make you a Better Pilot:
View Single Post
Old 12-28-2012 | 10:46 AM
  #95  
speedracerntrixie's Avatar
speedracerntrixie
My Feedback: (29)
 
Joined: Jun 2010
Posts: 9,714
Received 205 Likes on 176 Posts
From: Happy Valley, Oregon
Default RE: Tips to make you a Better Pilot:


ORIGINAL: Top_Gunn

Appliying rudder into the wind is simply to hold position and has little to do with attitude. Just before touch down the rudder is nuetralized as to not rip the gear off the airplane. Simple as that. Bob and I have done literally thousands of landings that way
I'm puzzled. If the wings are level and the nose is pointed into the wind, you are just crabbing, which as Harry and I have been saying is the usual way to handle a crosswind. But if you are actually holding rudder into the wind, with the wings level, <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">you would be constantly making a skidding turn toward the direction of the wind</span>. Why would you want to do that?

Bob says he counteracts the effect of holding rudder into the wind by holding the wing away from the wind down. So he's slipping, but with the low wing on the downwind side, so that the plane's sideways motion is away from the wind. Why do that?

I don't see how having extra power and lower wing loading justifies making skidding turns the norm. It's true, as Major T says, that different planes handle differently. In some you lead the turn with rudder, in others with aileron. I've never heard of one where skidding is routine, though. The one difference between models and full scale that makes a difference here is that models don't have passengers who would likely become uncomfortable in skidding turns.

The idea is to hold enough rudder and match power so that the models flight track is parallel to the runway. Then just before touch down you would ease off and maybe even go opposite rudder to adjust the models attitude as to not land in a skidding condition. I will agree that different airplanes handle this differently but what I see lots of times here on RCU is that someone like Bob or myself will give good solid advise based on 30+ years of R/C flying and then some of the full scale pilots come in and do their best to debunk our advise while having little to no first hand experience with the models we are talking about and justify it as being normal practice for full scale.