Can the front Wheel Spat cause Yaw?

[pmccarthy]

In the aero club bar….

”I'm having trouble with yaws.”

”What’s yaws?”

”Oh, thanks. Mines a beer.”

[BirdDog]

15 hours ago, Flightrite said:

The "don't push" (or words to that effect)  has nothing to do with checking control surface movement by hand, not very clever never checking them at pre-flight!

 

Yep!  I have certainly changed the way I do things now.  

 

 

[skippydiesel]

On 18/08/2021 at 5:07 PM, Jabiru7252 said:

I would assume the nose wheel and the rudder can be adjusted independently of each other. So, disregarding the rudder, adjust your nosewheel so you taxi straight ahead with the pedals neutral. Once you're happy with that, adjust your rudder so that at cruise power there is no yaw. Remember, maladjusted ailerons or flaps will cause a yaw, but with roll. Under high power, a yaw to the left is normal, under a glide, yaw to the right is normal. Remember when your instructor kept yelling "MORE RIGHT RUDDER!!!" as you gunned it down the runway during those first few hours.

No offence but I think your rudder advise in a bit sus. The rudder will move to the point of least air resistance. The only way to get the rudder to reduce in flight yaw is to :

• Keep a heavy foot on one peddle - fatiguing after a time
• Use a spring/bungee on one control cable/rod - works but peddles uneven in balanced/cruise flight
• Use a trim tab - either in flight adjust (additional complication) or a fixed tab adjusted to cancel out uneven action. The latter will require an adjustment to peddle hight so that when trim in effect peddles even

Its not so easy to diagnose an unequal control input -

 

Rudder may induce a yaw but this will progress into a role

Ailerons will role without corrective rudder

Separate miss rigged elevators will also cause role/yaw

Flaps - never had this but assume will act much like ailerons

A projection from the fuselage/missing wheel spat, etc may also effect trim

Edited August 19, 2021 by skippydiesel

[BirdDog]

Thanks Skippy 

 

I am surprised that there is no Rudder trim on this bird at all.  It has bias springs, and they may help.

 

Everything is aligned now, I have removed the front wheel spat to complete some further testing to ensure the actual control surfaces are all doing the right thing.   Then I will replace the spat and make sure it's aligned, and we should be good.