I am the one who has been complaining about the installation of rudder pedals in my Ercoupe. I made the decision to install them quite reluctantly in order to avoid a restriction on my Sport Pilot ticket. In the past few days I have been preparing to finish my checkride started nearly five months ago. I have logged over three hours solo on nothing but touch and go's rebuilding my confidence and trying to achieve some level of consistency.
Yesterday after an hour in the pattern, the tower decided to switch the pattern and go the other way. So they extended be upwind toward King Harbor and the beach. When they turned me around to re-enter the pattern, I remembered that this end of the runway had special challenges for me. Where the south end of the runway was a residential area, the north end had large parking lots and a pond under the base and final legs. Late in the morning there are significant thermals rising from them. As you can imagine, there is a tendancy to be high on final even if you are showing 500 fpm descent. After my first attempt resulted in a go-around and my second attempt resulted in a landing in the middle of the long runway, it dawned on me what was happening. On the third attempt I was still high. I said to myself, "Self... you put these stupid rudder pedals in so that you could do a slip-to-land... why don't you give it a try?" I don't usually answer my self in these type of conversations but in this case I did respond, "That's right, self... how does that work? Left aileron and full right rudder??" A timid and tenuous attempt seemed to work. On the next trip around the pattern I was more bold. Left aileron, right rudder, going down. I rode it right down to the numbers. I did a quick glance at the VSI and I swear I was approaching 1,000 fpm down. Yee Haw!!! Elevator going DOWN!!! Now I am far from a convert to rudder pedals, but I can now see some utility in being able to stick a landing even if you or the environment screws up your approach altitude. Just some thoughts on rudder pedals and the slip-to-land maneuver. Frank Nelson N51DV - 415C TOA
