The rudder is used to keep the plane straight into its airflow, not to yaw it out of the flow, unless you are doing an aerobatic manoeuvre that calls for it. In the full size we have the benefit of a slip ball in powered planes or yaw string on gliders, and that tells us which way to press the rudder to keep straight. If it goes off centre it means that you are yawed away from straight and you use the rudder to get you straight again. When slow flying it is all the more important to keep the ball/string in the centre, otherwise you lose speed, lose height, increase the stall speed and are more likely to spin. For instance if practising slow flight in a prop driven light plane at stall +5kts, the ball will tend to wander well off centre which means the plane is yawing and skidding around a turn. Rudder is used to keep it straight and stop it from turning. While in the cruise you might accept a tiny bit of off-centre on the slip ball to save you from getting a tired leg, you concentrate hard on keeping it centred when at very low speeds. Any yaw whether because of the plane’s tendency to yaw or because you are holding in the wrong amount of rudder, can be lethal. Remember that spins and flicks are caused by elevator and rudder. At the point of stalling the plane must be straight, the slip ball/yaw string must be centred otherwise the probability of a spin is greatly increased. That does not mean that the rudder is centred, it may be held off centre in order to keep the plane straight, but it is most certainly not used to move the plane away from straight. At very low speeds, turns are made with just a tiny amount of bank put on by small deflection of aileron, and require concentration on the slip ball to keep it centred by using the rudder. Note how all the time we are using rudder to keep the plane straight, to stop it from yawing and skidding around a turn. We most definitely to not use it to initiate or create a turn. No full size pilot would use the rudder to move the slip ball/yaw string off centre unless doing aerobatics or side-slipping, and therefore no full size pilot uses the rudder to initiate a turn. The turning force is created only by bank, and the fin and rudder keep the plane head on into its airflow. The rudder might be used in a turn to keep things straight, and all the more so when turning at very low speeds. You will be working the rudder all right, not to create the turn but to keep the plane straight to its airflow. You can try flying full size like a 3 channel model, and many will respond to the yaw by starting to bank. Your passengers will soon start complaining of feeling sick though, as every turn starts with a wallow as the plane yaws first and everyone feels themselves being pushed sideways, before the bank starts to occur. 3 channel models get away with it because there is no-one on board to feel sick.

If a model is flying so slowly that aileron reversal may occur and one wing stall, then it is flying too slowly, and using the rudder will equally flick it into a spin.

The only time I ever had the controls taken from me while I was learning was doing practice cable breaks in a glider. The instructor pulled the release at a height just sufficient to do one tight continuous circle of the field. Half way around he took control and I got an earful for using too much rudder and not watching the yaw string. He shouted at me to remember that elevator and rudder = spin and he had no intention of letting me get him into a spin 200feet off the deck.

I realise that 99% of the people reading this are in the USA, but if any of you should find yourselves in Gloucestershire England I will be more than happy to take you up in a plane, I will fly it to the stall+5 knots and you can press in rudder to try to turn the plane. I sure hope you don’t throw up when a plane spins!

H