Technicalities

Peter Garrison

Tuesday, January 01, 2002 at 10:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

The seemingly simple task of designing a homebuilt aircraft's roll control system became complex due to space constraints, internal fuselage bends, and the need to incorporate aileron differential.
Aileron differential, which reduces adverse yaw for a more coordinated flight, significantly decreases the aircraft's maximum roll rate (simulations showed almost a 30% reduction).
The author extensively analyzed the trade-off between adverse yaw reduction and roll rate using engineering metrics and compared his design's performance against historical aircraft and military specifications.
Despite design compromises leading to potentially suboptimal flying qualities, the article concludes with the comfort that pilots, including the author, can adapt to and become accustomed to an aircraft's handling characteristics.

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||| |—|—| | | | Since it consists of little more than a stick at one end and a couple of ailerons at the other, I thought that hooking up the roll control system of my homebuilt would not have been much of a problem. But then you wouldn’t think anything would be much of a problem, until you try it.

The pilot’s end of the system is a sidestick that swings 30 degrees to the right and left, turning a torque tube that runs aft along the left side of the airplane to a point behind the pilot’s seat and above the rear spar. There, a crank and pushrod convert the rotary motion of the stick into a vertical, linear motion.