Tips for flying with pedals

[USMCprwarr]

Hey guys,

I just got some saitek combat pedals and was seeking wisdom and guidance on the correct use of rudder input during flight. After messing around a bit it seems that it is best to give small- moderate inputs with back pressure. Is this correct? Any tips and advice are very welcome.

[TwoJay]

I believe the manual says not to use them in normal flight only in take of and landing

I do use them in combat situations at time during low speed maneuvers

In the Docs folder you will find all you need.

Tj

[Blu3wolf]

‘correct’ use - big can of worms there. What definition of correct are you looking for?

The -1 advises that the FLCS automatically commands rudder as required to attain coordinated flight. If your use of correct is such that you want to fly coordinated, then not touching the rudder is correct.

My own use of the pedals is limited to specific circumstances as required. On the ground with NWS on, I use the pedals for directional control of my forwards velocity. During the takeoff roll with NWS off, I use the pedals for directional control again. Same for landing, primarily in the three point aerobraking position.

In the air, I tend to only use the pedals when I desire uncoordinated flight. Examples are knife edge passes over the runway, quarter rolls to check under the aircraft, and rarely, nose authority during low speed maneuvering when AoA is low. Aerial gunnery, both in air to air and air to ground, though more frequently air to ground, will occasionally give me rise to use rudder to point the nose.

In most of these situations, the inputs tend to be rudder and forwards pressure on the stick. Knife edge pass is a quarter roll with slight bunting to 0.0G and top rudder to keep the nose up, belly check is much the same but not for very long, nose authority at low speed tends to either be full stick back and no rudder, or full stick forwards and full rudder to one side - or occasionally for air to air gunnery, stick as appropriate (often slightly opposite rudder) with rudder to point the nose.

[Frederf]

@USMCprwarr:

Hey guys,

I just got some saitek combat pedals and was seeking wisdom and guidance on the correct use of rudder input during flight. After messing around a bit it seems that it is best to give small- moderate inputs with back pressure. Is this correct? Any tips and advice are very welcome.

If you’re referring to coordinating your turns to avoid a skid or slip as in traditional airplanes, the flight computer does this automatically. Back pressure on the stick isn’t just a cable and pulleys to the elevator but a command input for a pitch type result. The computer works all the flight control surfaces to achieve the commanded maneuver and the assumption is that you want to fly coordinated so the FLCS adds in rudder to keep that ball centered. Any rudder input the human pilot adds is always a bias away from this coordinated position.

So use the rudder in flight when you want to do a maneuver other than coordinated flight.

[hoover]

Dunno where I read it (“Vipers in the Storm” or the Dan Hampdon book, I think it was the latter), but the author mentions the use of violent rudder input during a combat situation (Wild Weasel / SEAD) at least once while lining up for a CBU target.

Cheers, Uwe

[Blu3wolf]

Its probably more likely in dan hamptons book. I like to think keith rosenkranz would have flown the maneuver correctly.

Rudder to point the nose won’t do you a lot of good for lining up bombing. Yes it points the nose, but the bomb follows the flight path rather than the gun cross. Doesn’t help if its done at the last second - if its uncoordinated flight then the ballistics will be off, so you get an inaccurate drop. Then again for CBUs accuracy is a little less of a concern than typical bombing.

[Stevie]

Best use of rudder is to use it to point your nose laterally, and to remember that it is most effective at lower speeds; I mostly use rudder to break AOA hang/limiting all the time - like to get my nose down out of the sky quickly…over-bank and stomp a full boot in the direction you want the nose to drop and it works very nicely vice simply relaxing stick. You want to use this mainly if you end up below 200-250 KIAS; it’s not as effective at higher airspeeds, but still has it’s uses. Also works to dump out of the top of a vertical maneuver.

Other than that I use rudder in the landing pattern to capture runway centerline, counter crosswind, or top rudder to keep my nose on the horizon during a break turn (which is a cross-control input, try that too sometime and note the effect on roll - at low speed). You’ll learn to use large or small inputs in time as you learn to control your jet, based on how you’ve calibrated your pedals - just switched from CH ones and the first thing I’ve noticed is that the throw of the Saiteks “feels” longer and I have to make bigger inputs…that’s a calibration thing, I’d wager. Don’t be afraid to experiment…it’s just a sim.

BTW - I like the Saitek pedals WAY better than my old CH ones (which I broke a toe pot on…). No idea what took me so long…

[Stubbies2003]

@hoover:

Dunno where I read it (“Vipers in the Storm” or the Dan Hampdon book, I think it was the latter), but the author mentions the use of violent rudder input during a combat situation (Wild Weasel / SEAD) at least once while lining up for a CBU target.

Cheers, Uwe

That was definitely Viper Pilot by Dan Hampton as he was using that to spoil shots from ground troops against him when he was down and dirty trying to help the guys on the ground.

[Blu3wolf]

@Stubbies2003:

That was definitely Viper Pilot by Dan Hampton as he was using that to spoil shots from ground troops against him when he was down and dirty trying to help the guys on the ground.

And see that right there is a great use of uncoordinated flight. People look at an aircraft and lead it by looking along the nose - if its slipping or skidding though, it becomes a lot harder to gauge where the correct deflection is.

[LuciusEsox]

I use pedals and tbh I don’t use them in flight that much but they are useful in dogfights. The ability to get the nose (gun cross) round for that split second shot is invaluable and acts like a mini thrust vector.