Soreness after flights, and rudders

Robert M. Gary writes:

You probaby don't want to have your foot on the brake on the ground
unless you actually mean to use the brake. I teach my students to taxi
with their feet flat on the floor because they would otherwise always
drag the brakes during taxi.

Is it possible to apply the brakes with your heels on the floor?

Most people seem to want to use brake to control taxi speed rather
than power, which is not a good habit.

At least in simulation, it's very hard to find a power setting that
will keep the aircraft rolling at a convenient speed without it
gradually slowing down or speeding up too much. Of course, you can
adjust the throttle, but it seems like you're constantly playing with
it. Sometimes I get it just right, but finding that spot the next
time around is difficult.

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Does placing your feet back on the pedals cause any movement in the
rudder, or is it more resistant to inadvertent movement than that?

No, There is some resistance in them to avoid this.

One thing I've noticed with the CH pedals that we bought for the Kiwi
(our flight sim) -- it's too easy to fly around with the toe brakes on.

Yes, that seems to be a problem with sim pedals. You can set the dead
zone higher on the brakes to avoid actually having them applied, but
you might still be pressing forward on the pedals.

Keyword, SIM. No replicated product will really work how they do in the
real thing.


So how do they work? You have to extend your foot (press the toes
forward) to apply the brakes, right? Which in turn implies that you
might have to deliberately hold the tip of your foot back in order to
avoid applying the brakes. I've always wondered about that


You push the top of the rudder in order to use the brakes. but they
have a nice bit of resistance in them so u can push your whole foot to
move the rudder/nose wheel without applying the brakes. so u do not
need to hold the top of your foot off the rudder to aviod useing the
brakes.

Mxsmanic wrote:
Robert M. Gary writes:

You probaby don't want to have your foot on the brake on the ground
unless you actually mean to use the brake. I teach my students to taxi
with their feet flat on the floor because they would otherwise always
drag the brakes during taxi.

Is it possible to apply the brakes with your heels on the floor?

Most people seem to want to use brake to control taxi speed rather
than power, which is not a good habit.

At least in simulation, it's very hard to find a power setting that
will keep the aircraft rolling at a convenient speed without it
gradually slowing down or speeding up too much. Of course, you can
adjust the throttle, but it seems like you're constantly playing with
it. Sometimes I get it just right, but finding that spot the next
time around is difficult.

Just like in real life man

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Mxsmanic wrote:
Robert M. Gary writes:

You probaby don't want to have your foot on the brake on the ground
unless you actually mean to use the brake. I teach my students to taxi
with their feet flat on the floor because they would otherwise always
drag the brakes during taxi.

Is it possible to apply the brakes with your heels on the floor?

No its not, think of it like this. The peddle rotates around a point on
the back, this is about 1/3rd the way up from the bottem of the peddle,
so by going heels on floor it is impossible to rotate the peddle enough
to apply the brake. when you on the ground, you push through your heel
to steer the nose and push you ball of the foot forwards to use brakes.

At least in simulation, it's very hard to find a power setting that
will keep the aircraft rolling at a convenient speed without it
gradually slowing down or speeding up too much. Of course, you can
adjust the throttle, but it seems like you're constantly playing with
it. Sometimes I get it just right, but finding that spot the next
time around is difficult.

practise, practise, practise. remember that the surface is not always
perfectly flat so you will constantly have to adjust your throttle to
maintain a speed. thats why whenever your on the ground and moving, you
hand is on the throttle unless you tuning instruments.
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Mxsmanic wrote:
Robert M. Gary writes:

You probaby don't want to have your foot on the brake on the ground
unless you actually mean to use the brake. I teach my students to taxi
with their feet flat on the floor because they would otherwise always
drag the brakes during taxi.

Is it possible to apply the brakes with your heels on the floor?

No, but it takes no effort to slide your feet up. Students will try to
ride the brakes otherwise. That's one of the things we CFIs are always
looking for during taxi.

Most people seem to want to use brake to control taxi speed rather
than power, which is not a good habit.

At least in simulation, it's very hard to find a power setting that
will keep the aircraft rolling at a convenient speed without it
gradually slowing down or speeding up too much.

So is riding a bike.

-Robert

Mxsmanic wrote:
So how do they work? You have to extend your foot (press the toes
forward) to apply the brakes, right? Which in turn implies that you
might have to deliberately hold the tip of your foot back in order to
avoid applying the brakes. I've always wondered about that.

Unless your feet are more than about 15" you can't reach the brakes
with your heals on the floor. When you need the brakes you simply slide
your feet up the peddle to hit the brake and then come back down.

I used to fly an Aeronca with a heal brake and a puck tailwheel. About
1/2 the landings required brake to stay aligned (since the puck has
such little friction with the ground), but the heal brake is basically
either on or off. You so straighten a landing out by "pumping" the heal
brake to avoid over braking. It was certainly better than the J-3
though. I always flew with slippers because that is the only way I
could wrap my feet around the top of the rudder to reach the brake. I
kept real shoes in the back in case I had to land somewhere.

-Robert

VH-UNR writes:

Keyword, SIM. No replicated product will really work how they do in the
real thing.

Not surprising, since they don't work the same in any two aircraft,
either.

You push the top of the rudder in order to use the brakes. but they
have a nice bit of resistance in them so u can push your whole foot to
move the rudder/nose wheel without applying the brakes. so u do not
need to hold the top of your foot off the rudder to aviod useing the
brakes.

OK.

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VH-UNR writes:

Just like in real life man

Good.

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VH-UNR writes:

No its not, think of it like this. The peddle rotates around a point on
the back, this is about 1/3rd the way up from the bottem of the peddle,
so by going heels on floor it is impossible to rotate the peddle enough
to apply the brake. when you on the ground, you push through your heel
to steer the nose and push you ball of the foot forwards to use brakes.

OK. I was under the impression that the entire pedal pivoted around a
point at the bottom. It's hard to tell from photos.

Are rudder pedals about the same height as pedals in a car, or are
they higher up? They look higher up in photos, such that you actually
have to lift your foot in order to put it squarely on the pedal (which
is rarely necessary in a car).

practise, practise, practise. remember that the surface is not always
perfectly flat so you will constantly have to adjust your throttle to
maintain a speed. thats why whenever your on the ground and moving, you
hand is on the throttle unless you tuning instruments.

Yes, that's the way I end up. Speed up, slow down, speed up, slow
down. And if I'm going anything beyond very slowly, turns seem to
become exaggerated. Applying brakes on only one side seems to have a
tendency to turn the aircraft wildly unless one is barely moving. I'm
having trouble applying equal pressure to both brakes.

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Robert M. Gary writes:

No, but it takes no effort to slide your feet up. Students will try to
ride the brakes otherwise. That's one of the things we CFIs are always
looking for during taxi.

They deliberately ride the brakes, or they just ride them without
realizing it?

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