Interesting discussion. I learned to do outside rollers first simply because I thought it looked cool to be rolling ringht while turning left. I do outside rollers better mainly because I've done a LOT more of them than inside rollers.

Good comparison to a slow roll, because in both straight rolls and turning rolls, the faster the roll rate, the less important the rudder is. At a 3 to 4 second per 360 degree roll rate, the nose doesn't get a chance to drop much, so a passable rolling circle can be done simply bumping elevator inputs when the wings are a 45 degrees upright and inverted. This is because at 45 degrees bank angle, elevator input both bends the circle and maintains altitude.

Slowing the roll rate down further, though, lets the nose drop excessively and the plane undulates up and down ruining the effect. It's here, doing slower and more graceful rollers, that I personally feel the rudder and elevator are EQUALLY important in maintaining the manuever. I've got a video clip of a 3 turn rolling circle with alternating outside to inside to outside turns here:ROLLER LINK . The roll rate is approximately 9 to 10 seconds per 360 degrees, and the rudder and the elevator are equally responsible for maintaining heading, and bending the circle in both the outside roll and inside roll portions of the manuever. Their equal effect is REALLY pronounced in a single turn roller (regardless whether inside or outside) where the roll rate is maybe 25 seconds per 360 degrees.

I agree that it's mostly getting your MIND in gear relative to inputs that will lead to success, and for me I had to think of it like this: For an inside roller left to right from straight and level flight, I input maybe 35% left rudder to start bending the circle (here, elevator is responsible for nose attitude, and the rudder is totally responsible for bending the circle). As the wings approach 20% bank angle, I've decreased rudder input to 10% and fed in pull elevator (not "up" elevator, "pull" elevator) to maintain nose attitude (In this case, the left rudder would also introduce an undesireable nose down attitude, right?). At 45% wing angle, rudder input is 0% and "pull" elevator is maybe 25% since the elevator is now 100% responsible for BOTH bending the circle AND keeping the nose attitude right? Roll continues to a 65% bank angle, and I'm decreasing elevator input while starting to feed in RIGHT rudder. The roll continues to 90 % knife edge, and I'm using maybe 10% or less PULL elevator to bend the circle and maybe 50% rudder to maintain nose attitude (yeah, roles have been swapped, the elevator is now bending and the rudders is keeping the nose up). Another 1/8th roll to about 115 degrees bank angle, and elevator is decreasing (since it is now introducing an undesired nose down component) while right rudder is increasing until, at 135 degrees wing angle, rudder is at maybe 80 % and elevator is at 0%. The rudder is now doing ALL the work of bending the circle, and maintaining nose attitude. Roll continues, rudder is decreasing, while preparing to feed in some "push" elevator as the plane approaches inverted. At 180 degrees wing angle (inverted) I've got maybe 35% right rudder to continue bending the left circle, while "push" elevator maintains nose attitude. I'm halfway through the roll, and inputs are opposite of those I started the manuever with, since I'm inverted, right? Roll continues, I decrease rudder input since it is also introducing a nose down component, and increase push elevator until at 235 degrees wing angle (45 degrees to the inside of the circle, but inverted, right?) I've got 0% rudder and now maybe 25% "push" elevator, since the elevator is now doing ALL the bending and maintaining nose attitude). Roll continues, I decrease elevator input and start feeding LEFT rudder so that at 270 degrees (right knife edge) I'm using 50% left rudder to maintain nose attitude and maybe 10% push elevator to bend the circle. Roll continues, I decrease "push" elevator and increase rudder so that at 315 degrees, elevator is at 0% and LEFT rudder is at 80% and doing ALL the bending and nose attitude maintaining. Roll continues and by its 360 degree completion, I've decreased left rudder to the 35 degrees I started the manuever with, and it's right side up.

Those control inputs and approximate percentages remain true for all slower roll rates, and minimum turn rolling circles. Want a SINGLE turn roller, just decrease the roll rate to maybe 25 to 30 seconds per 360 degrees, and adjust the circumference of the circle so that you arrive at inverted flight and at the back of the circle at the same time.

Yeah, I know, lotsa words, but that's how slow rollers are done. Like I said, it IS easier to do fast rollers using elevator only, but a graceful slow roller REALLY steals the show.

Tim