next up previous
Next: Pitch Trim Up: Ailerons Can Be Flaps Previous: Ailerons Can Be Flaps

Dealing With Adverse Yaw

Especially with ``flaps'' down, use of ailerons to bank the plane will produce a yaw, or turning action away from the intended direction of turn. This is called adverse yaw, and makes turning with any sort of precision difficult. As an example, consider the diagram below, provided by Clay Ramskill. To roll towards the right, the right flaperon is raised, decreasing drag on the right wing. Drag on the left wing is increased as that flaperon is dropped further. This imbalance of drag on the wings will try to turn the plane left - opposite to the intended right turn. Adverse yaw effects are aggravated by long wings of high aspect ratio, or by shorter tails and smaller fin/rudder areas.

tex2html_wrap126

Counteracting adverse yaw effects can be done manually; just feed in rudder towards the direction you wish to turn! It's easier, though, to take advantage of a radio with mixing features; you simply want additional aileron-to-rudder mix when the flaperons are down.



Craig Kulesa
Wed Jun 30 22:29:14 MST 1999