ORIGINAL: Insanemoondoggie
Learn to use your rudder and you well be a much better pilot for it.
Couldn't agree more
ORIGINAL: Insanemoondoggie
Or when you have a crosswind on landing , the guys that fly with rudder , can land the plane on the runway ,the ones that dont use rudder ,usually end up landing into the wind across the runway , which can be fun to watch ,as they do not really have control of the plane.
Couldn't agree less.
What you've just said is that only those who INTENTIONALLY UNCOORDINATE their airplane are truly in control of it.
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Rudder's like every other control surface we have. It has a purpose (to control yaw in this case). Period. The decision to use that control to accomplish certain things is one based on dozens of factors...very rarely is "being right" one of them.
An example:
I landed my Edge in 10-12kt crosswind components all day yesterday. In MY case, I never touched the rudder on any approach. Indeed, in that situation, I have a rather strong RELUCTANCE to touch the rudder.
Why? Simple..."crabbing" as many call it...using the rudder to line up straight with the runway...is, BY DEFINITION, putting the airplane into an un-coordinated condition. I'm not a real big fan of un-coordinated flight with very little of my 2 best friends on hand...especially when i can't feel the airplane under my butt.
What's the upside? Simple...if I stall
that airplane, it's going to break nose down. That's recoverable, or at worst, less damaging than a spin at that altitude.
What's the downside? My final's ground track isn't "straight" with relation to the runway...so I get to do some judgment work to wind up where I want to be over the threshold.
Am I "wrong"? Of course not. I put my plane on the ground in complete control, and kept it out of a "dangerous" un-coordinated condition.
Was I "right"?...well...yeah..."right" in the sense that my airplane survived...but certainly not "right" in the sense that that's the only way to do it. Plenty of fellows handled the same approach with a crab, and landed their airplanes with skill and accuracy as well.
As it happens, our field is arranged such that the approach I flew never took the airplane into a "forbidden" zone. What if our field was different...or flight line longer...or whatever? Maybe then the coordinated approach runs the airplane over a house, or flight line, or pit, or whatever. Clearly, in that case, "right" would be to avoid that situation...and that may, indeed, require an un-coordinated approach. So be it.
Interestingly, in full scale, I'm quite the opposite. I have a STRONG preference for slipping down final in a crosswind. I'm more comfortable with an un-coordinated airplane when I can feel what's happening, and the slip's natural tendency to shed altitude lets me fly a bit higher approach...always a bonus.
Again, CAN I fly a coordinated approach in a crosswind? Sure...and I have and will when the situation calls for it. And, again...neither is inherently right or wrong.
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The point here is that I absolutely agree with you. Learn to use all 4 of your controls, and you'll be a much better pilot.
But, imo, truly mastering them means understanding what they're actually doing to the airplane...and that, frequently, they aren't as "necessary" as many make them out to be.