fun exercise, nuthin' but rudder

[scard]

You don't have to be going 140kts and 1000 nm from home to have fun in an RV, even without aerobatics.

Today I was out enjoying a fresh new oil change. I climbed to 7500' up through the white puffies to cooler air and contacted Approach since I would kinda' be in their way for the next 10-15 minutes. I got my squawk code and spent some quality time with my standard stick wiggle. Some lazy 8s, steep turns, accelerated stalls, slow flight, etc. Then it was time to go for some fuel. The puffy clouds were kind of like playing in a loose forest. It was going to take me a few minutes and a little maneuvering to get down. I decided to pull the power to idle, move pitch trim all the way nose up, and let completely go except for rudder. I remember doing a test during Phase I similar to this just to prove that the airplane was controllable in such a condition with no elevator or aileron inputs, but didn't really take it very far, just a proof. This time, I endeavored to take it from 7500', 7 nm out, all the way to the runway environment. I completely let go of the stick and didn't touch it. The rudder worked perfectly to control bank and direction of flight. With the power at idle and trim all the way back, the aircraft setup a very nice stabilized 59-63kt decent with very little pitch oscillation.

I maneuvered with my feet through a number of turns and course changes. Along the way, I tinkered with some flap and trim adjustments to simulate the ideal pitch angle and speed for a hands off touch down. That is a tricky deal since you trade a desirable slower speed for an undesirable lower pitch angle. Also, the quality of the rudder control in maneuvering (hands off) was a little more positive without flaps. I only played with 10 and 20 degrees of flaps. By now, I've pretty much got this figured out and am just entertaining myself on the way down. Once under the cloud deck (vfr scattered all the way) at around 3500', it was time to add in another control, power. I fed in just a little bit of power to begin to arrest the decent, and took out a little bit of pitch trim for about 75 kts. Still hands off, haven't touched the stick, navigating toward the airport. The aircraft is flying level. There are a few more pitch and speed oscillations in this mode that never completely damped out, but nothing too extreme. Mostly probably just reactions to the little bit of turbulence down low. I did some more tinkering with changes in power, speed, pitch, and maneuvering in this level flight mode on my way to the destination. It takes a while to get there going this slow ! Rudder and power easily flew me all the way into a close right downwind when I decided to terminate the experiment.

That was fun. Maybe next time, on a quiet afternoon, I'll try flying an actual stabilized approach all the way to a low approach and see what it would look like to actually level off for landing. I'm pretty confident at this point that I could put it on the runway with little more than a prop strike and maybe bent gear with the circumstances being the same. Obviously this little exercise doesn't address all of the other bad things that can happen related to control system failure like jamming or decoupling, but I had fun.

[zilik]

I gotta go try that in my 6A. I wonder how different my experience will be?

[Rupester]

..and it DOES sound like fun! One more time I'm pleased with my decision of a 9A over a 7A.

[Mel]

Reminds me of Ann's flight training. On her dual long cross-country, turbulence was really getting to her, even to the point that she was ready to throw in the towel and give up. Her instructor made her fly a very long leg using only her feet to prove that the airplane was not going to turn upside-down or fall out of the sky. She continued training after that and went on to get her PP certificate.

[Paul K]

and I still do it with my Cardinal. Can't wait to try it with the 7 when it's done

[lostpilot28]

Hmmm...this may start some thread drift, but I'm going to ask anyway. During my phase 1 I did this to make sure I could control the airplane's bank...which it does. However, I did notice that if I wasn't real careful the nose had a tendency to begin to pitch down when applying left rudder (I think it was left). I didn't give it much thought, and chalked it up to the "left turning tendency" that most lycoming/tractor configured airplanes exhibit.

I couldn't explain the pitch down, though. Any ideas about this, or is it normal in most 7A's?

[AZtailwind]

Originally Posted by lostpilot28

I did notice that if I wasn't real careful the nose had a tendency to begin to pitch down when applying left rudder (I think it was left)......I couldn't explain the pitch down, though. Any ideas about this, or is it normal in most 7A's?

...Maybe P-factor with the left rudder, another investigation for this is see if you need Elevator trim in any half standard rate rudder turns, going to have to try this

[jcaplins]

This is a good thing to know, especially for non-IFR pilots.

If anyone actually reads the POH for Cessna (at least 172, 172rg, and 152's), this is what they suggest for inadvertently entering IMC.

Basically:
- Note your heading.
- Let go of the control wheel.
- use the rudders to turn 180 degrees.

(other manufactures may suggest this as well, but I'm not familiar with their POH's)

[zilik]

Originally Posted by scard

The rudder worked perfectly to control bank and direction of flight. With the power at idle and trim all the way back, the aircraft setup a very nice stabilized 59-63kt decent with very little pitch oscillation.

It was a beautiful morning here in Colorado. 60 degrees at liftoff and no planes in site so I climbed up to 8000 once I was clear of the Class Bravo airspace. As I was slowing down to try Card's "rudder only" glide I thought about Iron Flights post on practicing slow flight for OSH. So I trimmed the plane for 90 kts and flew till the oil started getting a little warm. Piece-O-Cake, specially in the smooth morning air. I then pulled the throttle to idle.

Once at idle I slowly fed in full up trim while steering only with my feet. This was a lot harder than I remembered in my training days in the 182. My 6A was very touchy to rudder input, left being more sensitive than right. Once I got the hang of it it wasn't bad. After a few oscillations of the nose PZ settled into a 75 kt decent. Steering with the rudder takes very little input to make a big change and lots tougher once I hit a few bumps. I did some 90 degree turns and felt that if I had to land it this way the outcome would be like the Sioux City DC-10.

I had full fuel and just me on board so the plane was in the forward CG range. At minimum fuel with me and the wife and all our baggage I would guess the outcome would be different. Full up trim might bring us to a stall and it would turn into a falling leaf. Don't know, gonna have to try that too.

All in all, a good day flying.