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How helpful are rudders for stability on gusty days?

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HumanPoweredDesigner

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 6, 2009
Messages
1,030
Location
Arizona
I know rudders are useful for turning, and I know they provide automatic directional stabilization in calm air. But suppose your goal is to fly in a straight line, and through a gusty, turbulent area with your light wing loading. It is not gusty enough to blow you all over the place, but is just gusty enough to give your plane a little shake up every few seconds.

My question is, do rudders tend to catch the gusts and cause you to yaw off course often before you correct it? About how many degrees of yaw do you normally get before you react?



My intuition says the wind swings you out until the stabilizing force is greater, and then the yaw reaches an equilibrium that it oscillates about until the pilot applies rudder pedal to move the equilibrium back to straight forward, unless the gust has changed direction by then. But I just wanted input from ultralight pilots who actually have been there and know.
 
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