Here's a dumb question; what is the rudder for?!

I have about 10 solo flights behind me on an AviStar and at least twice as many flights during training. The entire time I have never used the rudder while in the air. From what I can tell, I'm not alone either.

I know what the rudder does; it controls yaw. I've played with the rudder a little while in the air from just moving the stick to see what the plane does to trying to make a circuit using only the rudder. I also know that the rudder is suppose to be used in conjunction with the ailerons to make coordinated turns, although I don't know how to tell if the turn is coordinated or not when the plane is 200 feet in the air. And I think I remember reading somewhere that you can use the rudder with the ailerons while landing to compensate for the slow airspeed and the reduced effectiveness of the control surfaces.

Everyone says,"You need to learn to fly the rudder." I was wondering if someone could tell me exactly what I'm suppose to be learning. I eventually would like to get into twin-engine planes, but I have a feeling I better know how to use the rudder before I ever try that.

On the small model planes it's hard to tell what the rudder is doing. But it can be very useful in keeping the lineup during crosswind landings and take offs. On the full scale we use the rudder to compensate for crosswind our flight path to keep us on course. When you move up to twin-engine planes you'll want to know how to use the rudder in order to compensate if you ever lose one of those engines.

Check this

http://www.rcuniverse.com/showthread...ghlight=rudder]

And if you try any 3D maneuvers, the rudder is a must because usually your ailerons are useless.

You can try hammerheads. Fun use of rudder. Straight up, cut throttle, just before it stops, give full rudder and a little power to "pull it over".

Coordinated turns are helpful. It is most useful at low speeds. Suppose your engine leans out on takeoff and you have minimal power. I have seen so many people "lose it" in this situation. A little rudder will keep speed up in the turn.

Once we took a 40-size plane and put an old ragged-out .15 on it. We let various people fly it. You really needed to maintein speed. It would stall on any turn that was not real wide.

Then one of the "experts" flew it. He kept up much more speed. We were amazed at how well it flew.

He showed us how much rudder-coordianted turns helped.

Aileron turns add drag. The deflection of the ailerons add drag and the plane will tend to yaw to the outside of the turn. The fuse adds drag as additional ailerons/elevator is needed to to fight the outward pull of the engine.

Adding a little rudder reduces drag. The enging points more toward the desired turn and verly little rudder is needed so its deflection causes less drag. Less aileron/elevator is needed so further reduced drag.

At a stall, the ailerons may actually reverse. As one wing stalls, adding aileron to level the wings will cause the wing to stall harder.

Anyway, here's a GOOD thing to practice. Fly at a minimal speed At good altitude.) See how "sloppy" it is in the turns. Then add a little rudder in the turns. You be amazed how much easier it will be to fly and maintain altitude.

This practice will come in handy when you get into trouble with power problems or recovering from stalls. When you start getting into 3D, and you start flying deep into stall conditions, recovery by rudder instead of ailerons is a must.

in full scale we cut the power when established on a vertical downline.
inputs: up vertical, full rudder, full opposite aileron and a little forward pressure, then point it straight down and chop the power

Hammerheads (or stall turns) ARE a lot of fun. Not sure they teach you all that much about rudder, but they get you use to using the left stick at least.

I would make one change to SHenion's technique though. On virtually every trainer, and most sport planes it's necessary to use full throttle to get the aircraft to "turn".

The technique would be; full speed (or close to) level run, pull up to vertical and chop throttle to idle, as plane looses almost all airspeed (but before it does) give full throttle while adding full left rudder at the same time. (I say full left because engine torque and prop wash will help pull the plane around.)

The goal is to get the aircraft to do a 180 turn on it's wingtip. ie, the left wingtip stays in one spot while the rest of the plane swings around it.
Dennis-

AdmiralHam,

With a trainer, it is hard to tell if the plane is really responding since it was designed to be controlled by the ailerons. In order to really get the feel for using rudder to control the aircraft, you need to get into a plane such as a 4 star, Cub, Supersportster, etc. These intermediate trainers have more rudder surface area but are still forgiving if you lose control.

The main purpose for learning rudder is to be able to control a wide variety of aircraft designs in different flying conditions. Whether your flying Warbirds, 3D, or your trainer in a gusty cross-wind.

just mess around with it and find out. this may not be good advice because i have not really had a real flight in, but that is my two cents worth.

I use it all the time. You can coordinate your turns with it, do loads of maneuvers, or fly with just rudder and no aileron if you feel like it to learn it or to just do flat turns with opposite ailerons. Get used to it, you will use it all the time and be a better pilot than any of the guys at the field who don't have a clue what it is there for.

I never fly without using it.

Here's just two instances where rudder is useful; takeoffs and landings, especially in a cross wind. I can fly in a 90 degree crosswind and do whatever I want in the air, while the flyers at our field who can't use rudder sit around and wait for the wind to die down. Get a hold of someone in your club who is very good at flying, and ask them how they use rudder- they'll talk your ears off.

the rudder on a trainer is mainly used for aligning a plane during landing. on a trainer or a high wing plane with a lot of dihedral and a flat bottom airfoil, it will also cause the plane to roll a lot.

Cherry, it's called a wingover.

I typically like the looks of a wingover then a stall turn. THough with my Laser and full high rate rudder right at the point of stall and about 1/4 power, the plane will rotate around it's CG. Really neat looking.

nothing looks neater than a knife edge spin.

Hey MadScientist I have to agree with you again, man we should fly together one of this days.

try flying around and looking at your thumbs from time to time. you just may be using the rudder and not knowing it. not likely-but possible

DBCherry's diagram is a stall turn or hammerhead. If you look in the AMA rule book about scoring the maneuver, you are allowed (from memory) one wingspan.

A wingover is simular, but the plane doesn't loose forward motion, and the up and down lines are separated farther apart. Basically, if you try to do a stall turn/hammerhead and don't slow down enough or apply the rudder too much too soon, you get a wingover and a 0 score for the stall turn .