[NSRCA-discussion] Wind correction

Mon Aug 14 07:04:52 AKDT 2006

Hi John,
I have long struggled to find a good way to explain this, in print.
If, rather than wings level, you talk about "the plane of the plane staying square to the plane of the flightline", it may help. Maybe it won't!
A 3-D picture would be worth a thousand words.

Even from crabbed level flight, or a properly crabbed vertical, any time the elevator is used, the existing crab will turn into unwanted wings-not-square
and the direction of the resulting turn will always be downwind! Adam's suggestion is a good one: go handfly it a zillion times.
Most importantly, flying around holding bootloads of rudder to fly in a crosswind will consume your power and airspeed.
Airspeed (or at least having it available on demand) is your friend in a crosswind and the best way to maintain it is to fly the airplane
uncross-controlled as much as possible. Eventually, you will use very very small aileron inputs for as much possible, and only use the rudder,
as Adam says, for fixing the weathervaning that results from airspeed changes, such as slowing down just before stall turns and spin entries or speeding up as the plane descends. These are almost always judicious downwind rudder corrections.
The aileron inputs will not be corrections, because they will actually have to happen as the looping action begins. After the fact is too late, and then all you have left is rudder, or dropping a wing panel. Of course, dropping a wing panel at 1G does very little compared to when you are puilling G's.

Hopefully, we will approach this problem from several different angles and ways of explanatioin, and you will triangulate it before long!
Then the other aspect of the art that Adam mentioned will start to kick in.  

Dean Pappas
Sr. Design Engineer
Kodeos Communications
111 Corporate Blvd.
South Plainfield, N.J. 07080
(908) 222-7817 phone
(908) 222-2392 fax
d.pappas at kodeos.com

-----Original Message-----
From: nsrca-discussion-bounces at lists.nsrca.org
[mailto:nsrca-discussion-bounces at lists.nsrca.org]On Behalf Of Jim
Woodward
Sent: Monday, August 14, 2006 10:41 AM
To: 'NSRCA Mailing List'
Subject: Re: [NSRCA-discussion] Wind correction

Well said Adam!  The only way for the wings to be continuously "level"
during any radius or loop in a bad cross wind is by rolling the plane.
Thus, you must continuously roll the plane just to maintain the look of
wings level through the entire maneuver set.  Despite the requirement for
wind correction to be only done in the yaw axis, the ailerons are the most
important control surface on the plane and are not "set and forget"
surfaces.  If you want to reduce your rudder work 50%, continuously focus on
"wings" level.  When the wings are level, the nose will always "seek" to go
into the wind.  If the wings are not level, you flash more surface area to
the wind and will be blown "with" the direction of the wind.  If you are
spot on wings-wise, you will actually find a tendancy to go into the wind in
all but the stalled maneuvers and if at too low a speed in general. (stall
turns, spins)

Thanks,
Jim W.

-----Original Message-----
From: nsrca-discussion-bounces at lists.nsrca.org
[mailto:nsrca-discussion-bounces at lists.nsrca.org] On Behalf Of Adam Glatt
Sent: Monday, August 14, 2006 10:15 AM
To: NSRCA Mailing List
Subject: Re: [NSRCA-discussion] Wind correction

Hi John.  Welcome to the game of wind correction.  There's flying 
pattern, and then there's flying pattern in the wind.  The difference is 
that in the wind you have to mentally trace the change in position of 
the airplane to determine the correct pitch and yaw to fly at.  In calm 
you simply point the plane where you want to go.

Perfect wind correction in pattern requires the wings be held level with 
the horizon for all normal flight, and during rolls the points are still 
perfect 45 or 90 degree banks from level with horizon.  Wind correction 
is completely in the yaw and pitch.  In practice, this results in 
techniques like always-present yaw angle in a crosswind; slight pitch 
angles in any and all uplines, 45s, and loops in the presence of a down 
the runway wind.

There are more techniques that you will need to be perfect at it.  The 
more advanced ones include higher throttle while flying upwind and lower 
while flying downwind, varying elevator position throughout any and all 
looping segments in a down the runway wind to achieve a truly round loop 
(if, during the loop, you go from straight up to upwind you will need to 
decrease your elevator input, as the plane will have a high airspeed by 
low ground speed; if, during the loop, you go from straight up to 
downwind you will need to increase your elevator input), and  the 
trickiest of all, aileron correction during a yaw'd pitch change (i.e. 
every time you use elevator in a crosswind).

That last one is often completely overlooked until someone tells you 
about it.  The best way to realize this correction is needed is with a 
stick plane or hand plane. Fly a level horizontal at a huge yaw angle to 
compensate for a huge crosswind.  So, fly straight but have your plane 
yaw'd 45 degrees.  Now pull elevator.  Remeber, the elevator raises the 
noise relative to the tail.  As the nose lifts and eventually gets to a 
vertical, and if you've been honest with yourself, the ailerons are now 
banked.  The only solution to this is aileron input during the elevator 
input.

Have fun in the wind.

-Adam

John Konneker wrote:
> I'm new at this.
> OK, not really but it's been over 20 years.
> Yesterday while practicing in enough crosswind (blowing in) to have a 
> noticeable effect I was having difficulty keeping the plane form coming in

> too close.
> I am confused about what the acceptable techniques are to maintain
position 
> and ground track.
> Is it acceptable to fly a maneuver with less than wings level to
counteract 
> the crosswind?  This has the effect of corkscrewing the loops, etc.
> In the stall turns while going up trying to hold the plane into the wind
it 
> will begin to yaw early giving the impression that the turn is being
"lead" 
> and is starting too early.
> Is this acceptable.
> Like I said, I'm confused as to what is wind correction and what starts
the 
> "1 point per 15 degree" deductions.
> Thanks!
> JLK
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today - it's FREE!

> http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/
>
> _______________________________________________
> NSRCA-discussion mailing list
> NSRCA-discussion at lists.nsrca.org
> http://lists.nsrca.org/mailman/listinfo/nsrca-discussion
>   

_______________________________________________
NSRCA-discussion mailing list
NSRCA-discussion at lists.nsrca.org
http://lists.nsrca.org/mailman/listinfo/nsrca-discussion

_______________________________________________
NSRCA-discussion mailing list
NSRCA-discussion at lists.nsrca.org
http://lists.nsrca.org/mailman/listinfo/nsrca-discussion