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<part 3 of 4>
Moving right along to the "Rudder" part of the title on page 137:
"Now it is bad enough that an airplane has a rudder
at all, seeing that 'the only purpose of the rudder
is to cover up the mistakes of the designers,' but
it is even worse that this annoying effect, torque,
makes it impossible to use the rudder in a consistent,
simple, logical fashion; because of torque, we fly
straight holding right rudder, we dive straight
holding left rudder, and we sometimes go around left
turns holding right rudder! And although we know it
is one of the worst sins of the pilot to hold rudder
during a turn, we do hold right rudder during a right
turn - because of torque. Torque messes up our whole
handling of the controls and is especially annoying
to beginners; since correct footwork on the rudder is
the most difficult part of elementary flying anyway,
torque makes learning to fly doubly difficult."
After disposing of a couple ideas that may explain some of this behavior,
Mr. Langewiesche comes up with a better explanation. This is the
spiraling
slipstream of the single, prop-driven plane. This accelerated air clings
to
the fuselage and impacts the center rudder. The Ercoupe had stability
problems until Fred's team put the vertical stabilizers on the ends of the
horizontal one and removed the one in the middle. Mr. Langewiesche made a
telling point later when he wrote: "There is no reason why those two
tricks
- the H tail and the slanted engine - could not be used in convention
airplanes as well, except that too may pilots feel that an airplane isn't
a
"real airplane" unless it faithfully reproduces all the traditional vices
all over again."
One aspect of "torque" not discussed is the yaw encountered on take off.
This yaw is most pronounced in "conventional geared" airplanes. You will
note I did not say "conventional landing gear," for such gear is not for
"landing," but for taking off. Look at it. The nose is already up in the
air and ready to go! This turning tendency, always opposite of the
direction of engine rotation as seen from the cockpit of the traditional
tractor setup, is because the propeller is not perpendicular to the
airflow.
The tilt, more pronounced in "taildraggers" causes the downward propeller
blade to meet the air at a higher Angle of Attack. The added thrust from
that side causes a turn to the other side.
Chapter 11, starting on page 176, is devoted to The Rudder. "The
important
thing to understand about the rudder pedals is that they are unnecessary;
like your wisdom teeth, they serve no very good purpose but can cause much
trouble. The airplane needs no rudder pedals. It should have no rudder
pedals. In all probability it will have no rudder pedals 10 years hence."
<to be continued>
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