was I pressing the brakes and not the rudder for my flight?

midcap

midcap

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midcap
Just being curious and replaying the flight in my head. It seemed like the rudder pedal was very hard to press but the instructor had no issue pressing his pedals because I would feel my pedals move when he did it.

Cessna 172 FWIW
 
If your stepping on it like a gas peddle maybe. Been a while since i've been in the skyhawk but they "slide" forward rather than "rotate" around the bottom.
 
Use the balls of your feet, push on the bottom
parts in flight.
 
falconkidding said:
If your stepping on it like a gas peddle maybe. Been a while since i've been in the skyhawk but they "slide" forward rather than "rotate" around the bottom.
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maybe that was it, I was pressing it like a brake pedal in a car.
 
James331 said:
Use the balls of your feet, push on the bottom
parts in flight.
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I made sure I did that. I really think I was too far up since I was able to work the brakes really well while taxing. It also doesn't help with my shoe size.
 
Also make sure you're not pushing against your other foot, they're interlinked.
 
exncsurfer said:
Also make sure you're not pushing against your other foot, they're interlinked.
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yeah, that just crossed my wind. Maybe I was so tense that I was fighting each pedal against the other.

What's an example of the amount of force it would take to move the rudder on a 20 deg turn?
 
You want to be able to get on the brakes for taxi, but once you're in flight mode slide your feet down, also try wearing thin soled shoes
 
midcap said:
yeah, that just crossed my wind. Maybe I was so tense that I was fighting each pedal against the other.
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That reminds me of a student I had one time. He was being really rough with the controls, but since it was tandem seating I couldn't see what was going on. I took the controls for a minute and told him to relax and take a few deep breaths. After a minute or two he kind of laughed and told me that he was so tense, he realized that he was pressing on the rudders with both feet so hard that his butt was out of the seat.
What's an example of the amount of force it would take to move the rudder on a 20 deg turn?
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Not much at all, you might have been fighting it with the other foot.
 
If you were operating the brakes while landing, you would know it, and the FBO would be ticked off at you.

In the air, maybe not. It's not necessarily enough to put your heels on the floor. You also have to push the pedals with the balls of your feet.
 
Cooter143 said:
That reminds me of a student I had one time. He was being really rough with the controls, but since it was tandem seating I couldn't see what was going on. I took the controls for a minute and told him to relax and take a few deep breaths. After a minute or two he kind of laughed and told me that he was so tense, he realized that he was pressing on the rudders with both feet so hard that his butt was out of the seat.


Not much at all, you might have been fighting it with the other foot.
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Had to have been, because it was very hard like non power assisted brakes on a car hard.
 
You should be able to feel if your feet are pushing against each other. More likely your feet were too high on the pedals and you were pushing on the brakes.
 
SkyDog58 said:
You should be able to feel if your feet are pushing against each other. More likely your feet were too high on the pedals and you were pushing on the brakes.
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Maybe, because it was almost near impossible to over correct with the rudder when I was turning. That would make sense. It was so much at once I didn't have the time to make adjustments on the fly.
 
Even if you push the brakes in the air, it'll also move the rudder... so long as you're not fighting the rudder with the other foot.
 
mkosmo said:
Even if you push the brakes in the air, it'll also move the rudder... so long as you're not fighting the rudder with the other foot.
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I was moving the rudder because I was able to get the ball in the middle of the gauge but I wasn't getting enough rudder soon enough and then I really had to press freaking hard to get enough rudder to do that.
 
You will not really get a certain answer until you fly again and become more aware of your foot placement on the pedals and the result it achieves. Until then, all of our comments are rather pointless.
 
SkyDog58 said:
You will not really get a certain answer until you fly again and become more aware of your foot placement on the pedals and the result it achieves. Until then, all of our comments are rather pointless.
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hopefully I will be out there again and will get a better handle on the pedals. I'll post my after action report.
 
As others have said, make sure your feet are on the right part of the pedal for the appropriate phase of flight. If you do try to taxi or make a rudder input in the air with the brakes and press the top of the pedal, they won't move far, so you could have experienced that. Could it also be possible that your instructor had his/her feet on the pedals as well, which made it difficult for you to counter-act the inputs they were doing?
 
Ryanb said:
As others have said, make sure your feet are on the right part of the pedal for the appropriate phase of flight. If you do try to taxi or make a rudder input in the air with the brakes and press the top of the pedal, they won't move far, so you could have experienced that. Could it also be possible that your instructor had his/her feet on the pedals as well, which made it difficult for you to counter-act the inputs they were doing?
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maybe, is that a thing that CFI's do? To make it harder for you to use the rudder?
 
midcap said:
maybe, is that a thing that CFI's do? To make it harder for you to use the rudder?
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I wouldn't think so, but I would talk to your instructor before your next lesson and tell them you are having difficulties using the rudder pedals. More than likely it's just one of those things that gets easier with more practice.
 
Ryanb said:
I wouldn't think so, but I would talk to your instructor before your next lesson and tell them you are having difficulties using the rudder pedals. More than likely it's just one of those things that gets easier with more practice.
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Will do
 
Ryanb said:
Could it also be possible that your instructor had his/her feet on the pedals as well, which made it difficult for you to counter-act the inputs they were doing?
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I sure hope not. That would be a useless instructor. No reason to do that intentionally, and anyone who couldn't control that while flying with me would be restricted to the back seat.
 
Push on the rudders on the ground. You will be able to tell for sure if you are pushing on the brakes instead.
 
What I've found on occasion is that a student will concentrate so hard on pushing one rudder pedal that he doesn't notice his other foot providing lots of resistance.
 
MauleSkinner said:
What I've found on occasion is that a student will concentrate so hard on pushing one rudder pedal that he doesn't notice his other foot providing lots of resistance.
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I need to do some chair flying to help coordinate my feet and hands.
 
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