Yaw Damper

[aman]

Hi all,

Was wondering what the function of the yaw damper is in an aircraft. I've considered manipulating the setting in FS many a time, but I was never quite sure how badly it'd make me crash! :)

Happy landings,

Aman :-wave

[Lou_Betti]

I've always felt that the yaw damper it is bit of a waste in FS, as all it seems to do is kill off your rudder pedals in flight. As such, I wouldn't bother playing around with it.

In reality, and to keep it simple, a yaw damper essentially provides automatic control of the rudder, to "dampen", if not eliminate the effects of adverse yaw, which is a typical by-product of aircraft with swept wings. Without the "YD" doing its thing with the rudder, the pilot would be spending all his time manually counteracting this yawing tendency with the rudder pedals.

For those who may not know "yaw" is essentially the movement of the "tail" from side to side along the aircraft's vertical axis. It is simply another axis movement such as roll or pitch. Thus the three basic movements of an aircraft revolve around roll, yaw, and pitch. The rudder controls yaw, the ailerons/spoilers roll, and the elevator pitch. :-)

Regards,
[link:www.dreamfleet2000.com|http://www.dreamfleet2000.com/gfx/im...ORUM_LOU4.jpg]

[Bagman]

there is also a yaw damper setting in the air file. this number should be approx 17% of the aircraft's gross weight.... it seems to help with holding altitude in turns both manualy and especialy on autopilot.

Brian


[link:greenmtnflightsim.homestead.com/Home.html|http://www.flightsim.com/dcforum/Use...1335ca1640.jpg ]

[toddrf]

And not just swept wings Lou,

Fly the King Air without the YD on for any length of time and you might quickly go through sick sacs. The plane has a tendency to "wallow" through the air which is why they added all those strakes to the rear end.

Todd :-wave

[Simon Evans]

Another potential problem is that yaw damper settings can be carried over from one aircraft to another, even if the latter doesn't have a yaw damper..! Ctrl + D to switch off the damper.

On the FSD Cheyenne the yaw damper functions correctly. For the same reason as the King Air, the Cheyenne yaw damper is go/no go item in real life.



Simon Evans

[apekop]

It,s main function is to control a phenomenon called " dutch roll" at high altitude.
In dutch roll the aircraft,s top axis describes a figure 8.
Similar to the movement a speed skater makes hence the name.
Since it cn be a divergent movement and is hard to control manually most jets have it.On most it is even a no go item.

[joea]

Am I correct in assuming a "no-go" item is one essential for aircraft operation?
Joe Apostolidis
Supporter of FS, quality add-ons, and real aviation
I Fly all planes eVerywhere, Very Fun Recreation