I can assure you the rudder is a very important control surface. One of the problems is in the responses a model airplane is capable of rendering a misconception of its usefulness. I find myself using aileron more, banking the plane, and using the elevator to turn with. But, that is not the usual practice for a passenger containing Cessna 172 with a family out for an afternoon flight.

The rudder is used to maintain a "coordinated turn". This means the tail follows the nose. Its also used to make the plane "dirty" to increase drag and alter the flight configuration relative to the ground path. Think of a slip-to-landing where you use a forward slip in lieu of flaps to decend at a grater than normal rate. Remember, flaps came later. Besides, when the flaps cease to work it can come in very handy.

Or, when you wish to cross-control to side slip - cross wind landings or rapid decent from higher altitude. Or to keep flames off the wing or smoke out of the cockpit, etc.

Since we're not inside and can play around doing all sorts of manuevers from the safety of the ground its easy to forget how useful it can be. Another thing, if you have access to a flight simulator you can experiment with different aircraft to gain some perspective on how various airframes react to the different controls. This is not to say its exactly like the real thing, but my G4 selection clearly demonstrates an effort on the part of the programmers to provide realistic reactions for various models that highlight the different characteristics each possess.

Try doing a knifeedge with a P51 Mustang or a slip to landing with a Yak54. The rudder on the P51 is very effective along the roll axis but on the Yak54 its fairly well confined to the yaw axis.

Use the rudder if only supplying simultaneous left input along with left aileron just to assist in coordinating a turn (minimize skid). Or, just do some knifedges without a rudder.

If you will consider the wing a two-part surface (ie. left wing...right wing), a spin is when one wing is flying and the other isn't. As you approach a full stall you can kick in hard rudder to one side inducing a stall to one wing (side) while the other continues to fly. The plane "spins".

As a plane slows you may find aileron ineffective but the rudder will still be flying. Its nice to have directional control from something!

Anyway, don't lose respect for the controls you have. You may need them.

Kindest regards,

Clay