This posting is the last resulting from my recent trip to New Zealand. I like to fly as many flying machines as I can and mentally compare them to one another. This may differ from some of you whose primary objectives or only imperative is to fly the longest XCs possible. Regardless there is very little discussed on adverse yaw which is much more important in gliders because of their large wing spans than say small single engine power planes. I would like to discuss adverse yaw as it applies to power planes and then to gliders. I conclude that there is a significant between various gliders in their adverse yaw characteristics. I hope to provoke a discussion on my findings which may be unique to me or may be universal.

For most modern small power planes such as my old Lancair ES or my current Jabiru J250 one takes off with feet on the rudder and at pattern height feet are off the rudder in smooth air until entering the pattern at the landing airport. Wide turns are made purely with the ailerons without the use of the rudder. Narrow turns require the use of the rudder except for the Lancair which had differential ailerons (the degree the left aileron moves up is different from the deflection the right aileron moves down and so on). The Lancair has the most coordinated and pleasant flying characteristics of any aircraft I have ever flown. Now there are super busy rudder aircraft like the tail dragger Citabria which are, in my opinion, uncoordinated requiring constant input on the rudder. Other power planes such as the Bonanza require a yaw stabilizer otherwise you are continuously kicking the rudder from one side to the other side to fly in a straight line.

Is a constant input on the rudder a major consideration? Probably not! Youwalk along a road and are you continuously conscious of every movement you make? No! Your subconscious takes over from your active brain and deals with your motor mechanics otherwise you would come to a full stop maybe on your ass. So now to adverse yaw with a glider.

So I have come up with a subjective critique of gliders. Busy rudder, average busy and coordinated. There are some caveats. Huge wing span open class gliders are worse than standard class gliders for adverse yaw. You pay for the better performance of the big ships. So my Stemme is very busy - you don't take your feet off the rudder even in smooth conditions, my ex DG800B slightly above average busy while the SparrowHawk is moderately coordinated. Now last summer I flew a LS4 from Minden to the Whites and felt that it had the most busy rudder I have ever experienced. A couple of weeks ago I flew a Duo and a Discus CS at Omarama. What coordinated gliders they are, especially the CS. The CS just tracks and tracks. As you go below 40 knots it shudders slightly and sticks it nose down. Of all the gliders I have ever flown the CS flies the nicest. Now back to the LS4. I have no complaints about its performance other than the super active rudder. There did not appear to be any slop or looseness in the rudder linkages but I would not personally own one.