Originally Posted by
Top_Gunn
One of us is. Here's a specific hypothetical case. Say your desired ground track is due west, and the wind is from the north. To keep from drifting south, you need to make your heading a little north of due west, say 275 degrees. So you apply right rudder and the plane yaws to the right. In a second or less, its heading is 275. At this point, you can do one of two things. (1) Neutralize the rudder. If you do that, your heading stays at 275 degress, and if that's the right heading to keep you from drifting, your ground track is 270. (2) Keep applying the rudder input you used to make the plane yaw to where its heading is 275. If you do that, the plane will continue to yaw, the heading will continue to change, the ground track will curve toward the north, and you won't get that trophy.
If this doesn't convince you, I give up. I've explained it to you as well as I can. I can't understand it for you.
Ok I think I see where we are loosing one another here. Yes if I apply rudder to change heading and keep that amount of rudder input the heading will continue to change. After the initial heading change, the amount of rudder must be reduced. I thought by stating that the yaw force applied is to counteract the crosswind force that you would have picked up on this. In theory easing off the rudder is needed but in practice there is only about 6 to 8 seconds between an end box maneuver and a center maneuver. If the rudder is held at a constant or backed off some or completely it wouldn't it may not make a huge difference. I will have to experiment some.