Neglect not thy rudder... (Part 1)

[Desert Rat]

Kurt-

Thanks for sharing your honest and candid self evaluation.

It's probably easy for me to say, but I'm going to say it anyway; Don't beat yourself up about this. I've been hanging around airplanes for a lot of years now and on the spectrum starting with "Normal Flight" and ending in "Catastrophic Life Ending F-up", Your experience is hardly a blip on the screen. I know it doesn't feel like that now, but it's true

As an instructor with not-insignificant experience, I can tell you sincerely that people with your attitude usually do well, learn from an experience like this, and are better people for it.

Your action plan for the future, sounds good. Don't try to fly so much that you make it a grind and start dreading it, but 10 hours a year and no flights at all for the last 6 weeks isn't nearly enough to maintain proficiency for someone with only 125 hours in the log book.

Theres nothing wrong with branching out to something other than a Cessna, but here's nothing wrong with sticking with a C172 either. Let your CFI know what happened and that you'd like to spend some time getting really precise with rudder work and lateral control.

You're correct in that the Skyhawk is a super forgiving airplane. Plus it has nose wheel steering, so it's always going to track easier than something with a fully castering nose gear like an RV. However, it's not like you can't develop good habits in it if you have the discipline to do it.

Final thought; There are people who go through their flying career fat dumb and happy, making worse and worse decisions, always shedding blame or minimizing/justifying consequences. Sounds like you're not one of those people.

You've learning from the experience and will likely be better off for it with no cost other than a bruised ego and some wheel pants, so it's probably a bargain.

[vic syracuse]

I am not a believer in full power prior to brake release, except under dire circumstances. Airflow over the rudder is really important for directional control. Some airplanes don’t even have enough rudder authority for full power prior to brake release, like the P-51.

It’s also hard on the prop, especially for nose gear aircraft, as stones and other debris can get sucked up and cause damage. If you really want to see how effective the prop is at full power, run it up over a water puddle and you’ll see a pretty good sized tornado between the water and your prop.


Glad it all worked out ok with just minimal damage.

Vic

[Pmerems]

Early in my RV7A flying I had a few high stress moments on takeoff. Just after the weight came off the mains, the plane instantly departed to the left (left crosswind). Posted a video on the forum years ago.

Got some interesting feedback. Some not so nice. But one mentioned dragging a brake. Sure enough that was the cause. I tracked the centerline with right rudder, but didn't realize I was also dragging the right brake. So when the weight on the mains decreased, I didn't have enough rudder to keep going straight.

The builder sets the rudder pedal and brake pedal relationship. My shoe size is 12 and I had put rubber tubing around the rudder pedal tubes to get a better clearance between the rudder and brake pedals. After realizing I was dragging the brake I added additional layers of tubing. Never had the issue again.

Dragging the brake might be a contributor to your directional control issue.

[Robert Sailor]

Originally Posted by akschu

Kurt,

Go find a local flight school with a conventional gear airplane and get your tail wheel rating with your BFR. That will for sure teach you how to coordinate all three flight controls and make you a significantly better pilot.

Schu

This is very good advice, you need to build confidence and skill. Tricycle gear masks, covers up and makes us appear that our skill levels are adequate when in fact they are not. A tail wheel checkout is a wonderful way to learn how to really handle an aircraft on the ground. That plus it’s good fun and you’ll come away a much improved pilot.

[bjdecker]

Originally Posted by vic syracuse

I am not a believer in full power prior to brake release, except under dire circumstances. Airflow over the rudder is really important for directional control. Some airplanes don’t even have enough rudder authority for full power prior to brake release, like the P-51.

It’s also hard on the prop, especially for nose gear aircraft, as stones and other debris can get sucked up and cause damage. If you really want to see how effective the prop is at full power, run it up over a water puddle and you’ll see a pretty good sized tornado between the water and your prop.


Glad it all worked out ok with just minimal damage.

Vic

+1

Just a quick visual, and the math is by no means 100% accurate, but in a typical light GA aircraft, the horizontal stabilizer and elevator are about twice the effective surface area as the vertical stab and rudder. Thus, you can raise the tail at about 1/2 the airspeed needed for enough rudder authority to keep her out of the weeds on the left side of the runway...

[cajunwings]

Good post Kurt: Don’t beat yourself up, everyone including the hi time guys have their own stories that became a lesson. +10 on your awareness of what happened and what it will take to improve. Glad damage was relatively light and no one was hurt. Full power before brake release is a good idea in theory, but can be problematic for a number of reasons. For a steer by brake plane it’s probably not the best technique and with any crosswind from the left not a good idea that gets worse as the wind gets stronger (assuming you don’t have the rare left turning engine) Get some training, tell the CFI what you need to work on. You gonna be fine.

Don Broussard
RV9 Rebuild in Progress
57 Pacer

[BrianHOU]

Kurt,

You're a great writer and a good story teller...as a 4000 hour pilot (from 12 years ago) I can tell you that your fear about returning to flying after time off or a problem is normal and even when I had a few thousand hours I was apprehensive if I hadn't flown in a week or two. It's pretty normal.

Anyone who examines their behavior as much as you have is someone we all WANT flying...so hopefully, you'll stick around.

But in case you don't - I'm looking for an RV-9 and so you've got lots of options!!!

Keep doing what you're doing...the results will follow the good behaviors.

Brian

[Tom Martin]

Most of us trained on low powered aircraft, Cessna 150s. These planes are about the same size as our RVs but with much less power. A lot of time training is spent on short field, or over obstacles. The take home message is to get to full power ASAP. With the docile handling directional control was not an issue, now with an RV you have a different animal, one that gets up and going quickly. Suddenly all that ingrained trading about short fields and obstacles is not as important as it was before. You typically have a lot more time in an RV to get airborne. It is no longer necessary to quickly advance the throttle. Take your time, start moving slowly, maintaining directional control. Try to advance the throttle to get the same rolling speed as you did in the 150, once you are under control slowly advance throttle until you are at full power. Even slowly advancing throttle will get you quickly into the air
Do not beat yourself up, take time to enjoy that acceleration.

[sblack]

You will be a better pilot fir this. My friend had 4000 hrs of instructing, much of it tailwheel conversions, but tailwheel, nosewheel, doesn’t matter. You are not the first guy to lazy tracking centerline and won’t be the last.

If he had a student who was consistently not tracking the center he would have him put his hands in his lap and work only the pedals and the instructor would work the stick and have his feet on the pedals for the save. It sounds pretty sketchy but this guy was so experienced he was way agead of the student and the airplane. They would do takeoffs and the student was expected to track +/- 6 inches of center. If he didn’t he would get a running commentary and if he still didn’t the volume would increase to motivate the student. Ok, who am I kidding, he would get screamed at and called names. Think marine drill instructor R Lee Ermy from Full Metal Jacket. “WHAT IS YOUR MAJOR MALFUNCTION NUMBNUTS!”. Bruce had that rap down pat . It works! It probably saved many airplanes and a few lives.

It is such a critical thing and usually the axis that gets the least attention when it should get the most. In this training the excuse of crosswind or a low tire or something else was not accepted. Deviation due to brake release at full power would not be accepted either. “You are the pilot, you are in charge, the aircraft is your BITCH, don’t let it fly you!!!”. When it comes down to it, it is not really skill, you have the skill, it is a mindset. You have to be proactive and aggressive, not reactive and passive. Not only with a tailwheel but any airplane. Tailwheel guys tend to have this problem less because their airplanes are already more demanding in the directional axis. Cessna drivers are the worst because they have grown to expect their airplanes to track perfectly on their own. They are so stable and easy to fly that they usually do.

So from now on don’t let yourself stray more that 6” from the centerline. Think of that guy screaming at you and you’re Pyle.

[Gary7A]

You'll be expert when your flying matches your writing.


G R Kohler
RV-7A
Ohio