Rudder Coordination

Source: Wally Moran

Following is an interview with Wally Moran regarding rudder coordination.

Mark:

"Do you have any tips for applying the right amount of rudder when we're either rolling into or out of a turn?"

Wally:

"Absolutely. Of course, all our instructors told us to watch the ball, and that's okay, but we shouldn't fly the airplane looking at the ball. We should fly the airplane looking out the window. So, the way you can tell a proper coordination by looking out the window is to watch the nose of the airplane. As you roll into the turn, the nose should stay in the same place that it was, and as the bank is established, the nose should begin to go in the direction of the turn. If it goes in the opposite direction as you roll in the aileron, you did not put in enough rudder. If it starts to move before the bank is established, you have put in too much rudder.

Same, rolling out of the turn -- as you pick a point to roll out of your turn, the nose should stop at that point, and as you roll out of the turn the nose should stay in that very same spot.

You can also use the same technique when correcting for gusts. Many pilots use only aileron when they pick up the wing. When they do this, the wing first drops, they apply aileron, the nose yaws in a direction, the wing comes up. When they release the aileron the nose now yaws back in the other direction, and so for each gust, they get a wing drop and two yaws. No wonder their passengers don't enjoy flying with them on bumpy days."

Mark:

"So what should we do in that situation, then? What's the proper technique to overcome that?"

Wally:

"When a wing drops due to a gust, we should use both aileron and rudder coordinated to bring it back to level flight, thereby eliminating the two yaws, one left and one right."