Steering on the taxiway

In article ,
Thomas Borchert wrote:

Bt,

use your brakes, use a little extra power and then "drag" the brakes to
keep
them warmed up, hot brakes work better


You're kidding, right? That'S a good way to start a nice fire.

Yep, Cirrus pilots know about that.

Hi Mx!

Different aircraft respond differently to rudder input whle taxying..

Heaver aircraft take more "push" to get turning, and tend to want to
keep turning, more than light ones, especially twins with engines out
on the wings. (kind of a "flywheel" effect...)

In some, the nose wheel steering is connected to the rudder pedals
with springs (Cessna 172) so the steering input feels vague and
differential braking is used to assist tight turns. On others (Piper
Cherokee) the steering is hooked direct and is very positive. You have
to be careful to get the rudder centered before you allow the nose
wheel to touch when you are holding rudder in a crosswind landing.

and...

.....for the record..I find your questions here to be reasonable and
the (correct) answers posted will be of some value to You and the
many who lurk here..

I am having some difficulty understanding why some here find it
necessary to chastize you for being a "sim" pilot. I know some local
"sim" pilots who would love to do the real thing, but are unable for
various reasons.

If that is your circumstance, I hope it is temporary, and you may
experience the thrill of piloting a real aircraft someday.

I am a pilot, have lots of hours in sims, and I am fortunate to have a
clean medical and my own plane, - at this time in my life.

It has not always been so, and there will be a time again when it is
not so.....

Ignore the rants, there are some here that will answer your question
properly and correctly..

....and... just so there is no confusion.... very hot brakes don't stop
very well.... and 16 Knots is WAY to fast to taxi any aircraft!

Cheers!

Dave




On Sat, 25 Nov 2006 02:59:21 +0100, Mxsmanic
wrote:

Is it better to use just the rudder or differential braking to turn on
taxiways? I understand that steering mechanisms vary considerably
from one aircraft to another, but I'm still curious. In this case,
I'm wondering about a Baron 58, the aircraft I fly in my sim (most of
the time).

I note when taxiing that the aircraft seems to oversteer, especially
as speed increases. That is, I'll move the rudder to straighten out
on the centerline of the taxiway, but the aircraft still continues to
drift slightly in the turn and overshoots the centerline. Is this the
way the real aircraft works? If so, what causes it? I should think
that if the rudder pedals turn the nose wheel directly, it would be
hard to overshoot unless the nose wheel actually skids or something
(?). This isn't happening at high speed, it's like 16 knots or so (or
does that count as high taxiway speed?).

"john smith" wrote

Depending on the size of the aircraft and the engines, only small
increases/decreases (+/- 100 rpm) in power are necessary if applied at
the correct times.

So why are you trying to tell him how to fly a simulator?

I don't get it.
--
Jim in NC

"Mxsmanic" wrote

It does appear to work that way on the Baron.

It is only a program./ Someone wrote it wrong. Do whatever you have to do to
make it work.

Even better, fix the program.

Or go ask the simulator folks how it is supposed to work.
--
Jim in NC

wrote

If it wasn't for all the silly replies from Mxsmanic the answers to
his question are often very useful. There's lots of competent pilots
with a wide range of knowledge in these groups.

I can't decide if I should read useful replies or ignore the lot!

So start a new thread. The problem is all of the people that give good answers,
by replying to the nut.

It is going to take discipline to get rid of him. Even if you know a good
answer, it is NOT the right thing to answer it in response to his post. Go
start a new thread, and give the answer as a hypothetical situation, or
something.

I know everyone wants to talk airplanes, but really, he needs to go back to the
simulator group. Like has been suggested, there have been a lot of people, good
people stop reading, because of the annoying nutcase.

To get rid of a troll, you can not answer him in a dignified manner, no matter
what. Make fun of the question, insult the person, or don't answer, but don't
treat the question like a real question. It takes restraint.

JMHO.
--
Jim in NC

Dave writes:

Heaver aircraft take more "push" to get turning, and tend to want to
keep turning, more than light ones, especially twins with engines out
on the wings. (kind of a "flywheel" effect...)

In some, the nose wheel steering is connected to the rudder pedals
with springs (Cessna 172) so the steering input feels vague and
differential braking is used to assist tight turns. On others (Piper
Cherokee) the steering is hooked direct and is very positive. You have
to be careful to get the rudder centered before you allow the nose
wheel to touch when you are holding rudder in a crosswind landing.

As far as I can tell, the Baron has a direct connection from rudder to
nose wheel. The part I don't understand is how an aircraft can
overshoot in a turn if the rudder is connected directly to the nose
wheel. Either the wheel stays put, in which case it must skid a bit
as the aircraft continues to turn, or the nose wheel turns and forces
the rudder pedals to move in consequence (which I would not be able to
feel in a simulator). Do you know which way it works?

I'm getting better at turns. I try to anticipate enough in advance
that I don't keep turning past the centerline. Oddly enough, it seems
to be more difficult to turn on the ground than it is in the air.

Maintaining speed is irritating, too. Sometimes I hit it just right
and the aircraft just putts along at about 11 kts, but finding that
sweet spot consistently is difficult. And with long runways and large
airports, one is rolling about for quite a while at 11 kts.

....for the record..I find your questions here to be reasonable and
the (correct) answers posted will be of some value to You and the
many who lurk here..

Thanks.

I am having some difficulty understanding why some here find it
necessary to chastize you for being a "sim" pilot. I know some local
"sim" pilots who would love to do the real thing, but are unable for
various reasons.

It's the nature of USENET, and I seem to attract more of the standard
USENET kiddies than most, for some reason. I stopped paying attention
to the children years ago. There are always a few people who want a
serious discussion, if one sifts through the noise.

If that is your circumstance, I hope it is temporary, and you may
experience the thrill of piloting a real aircraft someday.

I hope so, too, but I'm not very optimistic at the moment.

I am a pilot, have lots of hours in sims, and I am fortunate to have a
clean medical and my own plane, - at this time in my life.

I hope you didn't have to wait long. While I suppose that flying at
70 might be better than never flying at all, it seems like a long time
to wait. But it is so expensive that few have the means early in
life, and conversely many don't have the medical later in life (the
medical requirements are rather exaggerated, but there they are).

...and... just so there is no confusion.... very hot brakes don't stop
very well.... and 16 Knots is WAY to fast to taxi any aircraft!

Hmm. It seems so slow. How about 11 knots? I go faster than that on
a bicycle ... why do aircraft have to taxi so slowly?

--
Transpose mxsmanic and gmail to reach me by e-mail.

In spite of what a lot of people think, you can still steer a
non-nosewheel-steering aircraft like a Cirrus and others with the
rudders at taxi speeds. You may the brakes to turn with the wind,
however. And contrary to how many are being taught, you don't need the
brakes on the beginning of takeoff run to stay aligned with the center
stripe.

Doug writes:

And contrary to how many are being taught, you don't need the
brakes on the beginning of takeoff run to stay aligned with the center
stripe.

Pilots are taught to use the brakes on take-off? Isn't that unsafe?

--
Transpose mxsmanic and gmail to reach me by e-mail.

"Morgans" wrote in
:

To get rid of a troll, you can not answer him in a dignified manner,
no matter what. Make fun of the question, insult the person, or don't
answer, but don't treat the question like a real question. It takes
restraint.

Lordy it takes a lot or restraint, especially when the nutball questions
the real world.....

Gotta pat myself on the back, I have not and will not reply to anything
directly, only determine to remind new people that I see that they are
dealing with a troll and gently remind them to ignore him, not answer his
questions and so on. And as Jim says above, the new person can easily
start their own threads.

Yes, some lurkers may not like it, and personally, I don't care how good
the questions he may ask, the lurkers DO HAVE A KEYBOARD and can ask the
questions themselves.

I also re-iterate, I can't imagine a pilot not helping a fellow pilot,
armchair pilot or even a sim pilot, but this guy is beyond these categories
when he starts his combative answers without having any knowledge of the
real deal.

Allen

Jon Kraus wrote in
:

Historically this has not happened and my guess is that it will not.
If you notice there are several very valuable folks that are not
posting here anymore and my guess is that this freakn' MXidiot has
something to do with it.

Yeah, unfortunately you are right, one thing for sure, the folks not
contributing are very much missed.....

Maybe as more see what we as a group can do, the less responses Mx
nutball will get and those folks will come back onboard.

Jim in NC I see is giving heads up about Mx's history, the more that
does this, the less answers he will get, to the point that maybe NOBODY
will respond to his posts.

It's bad enough I am adding to this by trying to drum up non responders
and not talk about aviation related stuff, but somehow, someway, we
regulars CAN take back the group with the power of peer power by
ignoring this nut.

I'd love to start a censored list where the idiots could be sent off
to pasture (let the bleeding hearts flame away) and the real questions
about piloting our real aircraft could continue like it used to. Just
.02

I think this is called moderated, don't know enuf about newsgroups to
figure out about moderated groups. Just know enough to be dangerous....

Allen