You're right. The best yaw indicator in the airplane is the nose of the
airplane. Instructors should be able to pick up the slightest amount of
uncoordination simply by watching the nose. Its also a good idea to wean the
student off the ball and onto the nose as soon as possible. I'll go so far
as to say that it was my common practice to do this on the first flight.
In my opinion, much too much attention is placed on the ball as a
coordination verification tool, and much too little attention paid to the
nose of the airplane by a great many CFI's.
Its a choice I know, but I've been teaching this way for a very long time,
and have found it the optimum method for teaching coordination to a new
student.
I will also say that in flying advanced acro, I don't even look at a ball.
At low altitudes in demonstration work, you don't have the time or the
luxury of referencing the ball. You reference the nose of the airplane. Its
the best "ball" you'll ever have.
Dudley Henriques

"T o d d P a t t i s t" wrote in message
...
"Robert M. Gary" wrote:

I'm a flight instructor so I can feel 1/4 of a ball out,

I'm a flight instructor, too, and I don't think I can detect
steady 1/4 ball out, but I *can* detect when we're
coordinated and the student suddenly uses inappropriate
rudder, either too much or too little. It's much easier to
detect changes than to detect where the ball is. When the
student is steady, your butt is sitting steady on the seat.
As soon as the amount of coordination or uncoordination
changes, the pressures change and you can feel it. The
change in pressure on my butt is what signals me to look at
the ball (or yawstring in the case of a glider) to see how
far it's going to move. Often I feel that signal before it
has changed much at all.
--
Rule books are paper - they will not cushion a sudden meeting of stone and
metal.

- Ernest K. Gann, 'Fate is the Hunter.'