Hello all,
So I don't know if others encountered this or if most think this is obvious. On a number of occasions I was bewildered and upset that my plane was not flying in perfect alignment. By that I mean the slip skid indicator is perfectly aligned in straight and level flight. It happened today again where with no rudder input I was in cruise flight level and in a forward slip.
I researched and researched and suspected the nose wheel to be the culprit. I've seen videos (including my own) where the front wheel defaults to pointing left and just stays there. Something by the way that I find curious but perhaps a topic for another thread.
Today as I was flying on a long cross country, it occurred to me that the tie down rings may be unaligned and that could cause the planes problematic yaw relative to the direction of travel. I've used the left wing ring to mount a GoPro and may have rotated it out of alignment. At first I thought the aerodynamic implication of that would not be as great as the indicated degree of slip. I decided to land, check the rings, fix if unaligned and fly again. Sure enough, the left wing ring was slightly turned and I straightened it. Took off after that and the plane was perfectly aligned again! It makes sense to me now because of how far out on the wings they are (think moment).
My story for everyone's benefit.
Thanks!
Cruising in forward slip solved!
Moderators: Rick, Lance Murray
- waynemcc999
- 5 Diamonds Member
- Posts: 556
- Joined: Sun Jun 08, 2014 3:38 pm
- First Name: Wayne
- Aircraft Type: DA40
- Aircraft Registration: N211WP
- Airports: KSBA
- Has thanked: 1502 times
- Been thanked: 399 times
Re: Cruising in forward slip solved!
Could still be the nose wheel corking, because that seems to be a function of the nose wheel angle on liftoff. You'll need to verify by many, many trial takeoffs... or a GoPro on the tail skid facing forward.
Wayne McClelland
PPL/IR, 2008 Diamond Star DA40-XLS 40.922, KSBA
Photo logs of PilotsNPaws | Flying Doctors | Angel Flight | YouTube @GeezerGeekPilot
PPL/IR, 2008 Diamond Star DA40-XLS 40.922, KSBA
Photo logs of PilotsNPaws | Flying Doctors | Angel Flight | YouTube @GeezerGeekPilot
- elmanzah
- 2 Diamonds Member
- Posts: 43
- Joined: Mon Sep 16, 2013 7:52 pm
- First Name: Hisham
- Aircraft Type: DA40
- Aircraft Registration: N908DS
- Airports: KXLL
- Has thanked: 43 times
- Been thanked: 4 times
Re: Cruising in forward slip solved!
waynemcc999 wrote:Could still be the nose wheel corking, because that seems to be a function of the nose wheel angle on liftoff. You'll need to verify by many, many trial takeoffs... or a GoPro on the tail skid facing forward.
It’s possible but I think the conclusion I feel most comfortable with having read this forum and others is that the plane flies trimmed with the nose wheel corked to the left. I’ll post the write up that drives my thinking in the next post.
- elmanzah
- 2 Diamonds Member
- Posts: 43
- Joined: Mon Sep 16, 2013 7:52 pm
- First Name: Hisham
- Aircraft Type: DA40
- Aircraft Registration: N908DS
- Airports: KXLL
- Has thanked: 43 times
- Been thanked: 4 times
Re: Cruising in forward slip solved!
I know this has been posted here before
http://da-40.blogspot.com/?m=1
http://da-40.blogspot.com/?m=1
- Lou
- 4 Diamonds Member
- Posts: 370
- Joined: Sat Nov 21, 2015 1:39 pm
- First Name: Louis
- Aircraft Type: DA40
- Aircraft Registration: CGXLO
- Airports: CZVL
- Has thanked: 118 times
- Been thanked: 115 times
Re: Cruising in forward slip solved!
I think you are on to something Hisham. I am careful to align the rings (or remove them altogether) and uncoordinated flight is the exception not the rule with my aircraft. I still think the nosewheel is a factor some days.