It’s an article of faith among seasoned pilots that many of their less-experienced peers either don’t know or don’t care enough to use the rudder properly. The frequent result, they point out, is uncoordinated flight, too often leading to the classic loss-of-control in-flight accident (LOC-I): a stall/spin, without enough altitude to recover. While that debate won’t be resolved here, we do want to point out that coordinated flight isn’t always the most desired way to manipulate an airplane’s controls.
In its Airplane Flying Handbook (FAA-H-8083-3B), the FAA says coordinated flight occurs when “the airplane’s nose is yawed directly into the relative wind and the ball is centered in the slip/skid indicator.” The same reference defines the term as the “application of all appropriate flight and power controls to prevent slipping or skidding in any flight condition.” Given that there are completely normal, everyday situations in which we don’t want to be coordinated, we like that definition a bit better. What are those normal, everyday situations in which the FAA says it’s okay to be uncoordinated?
