Rudder-only acrobatics
 

What would happen if I used full rudder on a trainer (sig seniorita) that only has rudder and elevator control. If I give full rudder (to turn obviously) it will bank quite steeply. I've had it up on one wing before. I'm always tempted to keep rolling it over, but I don't know what would happen when I went upside down. Would it continue to roll and come back upright? Or would something horrible and unrecoverable happen.

And yes, I am doing this far, far away from people and buildings...

Thanks,

Acrobatic wanna-be... Yes, I know, I need to buy an Extra.

Mayday

Rudder-only acrobatics
 

The Senior and Seniorita are quite aerobatic without ailerons.

The rudder will roll it as noted. Doing it at speed, suddenly giving full rudder and some up elevator will snap-roll it. (essentially a spin in horizontal direction instead of vertical... much faster than just a roll that doesn't stall one wing.)

With practice... you can fly them inverted as long as desired.

The stall turn is relativelyeasy.. use some down elevator to help counter the yaw-roll coupling. (you can even reverse the roll couple with enough down elevator...)

The'll almost do straight knife-edge... again down elevator to reduce roll couplng, and it will do circling knife-edge, turning to the wheels.

Combining techniques... you can do a passable Cuban 8. ;) Use snap-1/2rolls instead of the normal aileron 1/2 rolls. (1/2 snap from inverted isn't hard.)

If you've got the power... (.40 on Seniorita, .61 on Senior) it'll do a square loop. Long verticals are hard with the recommended engine sizes.)

As recommended above... practice these fairly high.

When you get really good... low inverted passes with a rudder/elevator plane are impressive to people who don't fly the "limited performance" planes. ;)