AILERON/RUDDER MIXING EXPLAINED

Build good habits now and fly better tomorrow

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As the name implies, adverse yaw is an adverse or unfavorable condition that, among other things, delays achieving solo abilities. Traditionally, until his or her skills improve, struggling and committing to many hours of practice before soloing has been the assumed burden of a student pilot. Unknowingly and unnecessarily, novices have been fighting the additional challenge of flying with adverse yaw. Indeed, novice pilots have always assumed the lack of correlation between their control inputs/intentions and the response of the plane to be due to wind (or the need for more practice), when in fact adverse yaw has been a big factor!

This article details the practice of using aileron/rudder transmitter mixing to eliminate adverse yaw, i.e., the inherent opposite yaw or skid that is especially pronounced during aileron deflections on fl at-bottom-wing aircraft, such as those used for primary flight training. It’s probably safe to say that most of the people reading this learned to fly at the side of a recreational flier/instructor with little preflight preparation. As a result, most pilots are conditioned to “react” to what the airplane does, as opposed to having a plan and pro-actively controlling the plane. Consequently, most pilots naturally think that getting better at making corrections, having good reflexes, and experiencing more stick time are the keys to becoming a better flier. Rarely does adverse yaw or the advantages of aileron/rudder mixing when learning to fly ever come up. However, if you were to objectively compare the results achieved when training with aileron/rudder mixing versus without, you would discover an immediate improvement inconsistency and the rate of learning.