Rudder Walk & Simulated Engine Loss video

I wrote about the rudder walk exercise a while ago and tried to explain what’s involved and how challenging it is for me.

Now I have some video to go with it, but the video isn’t that exciting until you realize a few things:

• The airplane isn’t flying; it’s falling
• The wings are generating no practical lift
• We’re holding the airplane in a full stall with the stick all the way back
• The only thing keeping the wings even close to level is my tiny rudder changes. That’s what Bill is referring to when he talks about “input” and “pressure”.
• Airspeed is somewhere just under 60mph; we’re normally zipping around at 150mph
• The beeping is the stall warning indicator
• Descent rate is ~3400 ft/minute. (Maybe more accurately termed “free-fall rate”.)

It was a beautiful day for flying and Bill and I both had open schedules so we flew a long time, including airwork and pattern work/landings at Cambridge and Easton. It was New Years Eve and no one else was flying; even Potomac Approach (the Baltimore-Washington International control frequencies) was quiet.

This rudder walk and the simulated engine failure were the start of our flight. I’ll post some other video snippets soon.

I’m getting better! And loving every minute of the challenge.

We just happened (not an accident, I’m sure) to finish the rudder walk near a small airport (Ridgely) where Bill felt the most appropriate celebration was a nice simulated engine failure exercise. This amounts to pulling the power to idle and working through handling the emergency and setting up a power-off landing. I didn’t do it perfectly but it would probably have been a successful landing.