The focus of our Slip/Skid Webinar was the PPL slip to land maneuver and its essential role in creating rudder awareness and “control courage.” 
Timid pilots are dangerous; they still fear banking and full control application and consequently usually provide an insipid version of the slip to land on evaluations. Many times this maneuver is not trained adequately or fully tested (to an accurate landing) as required.
Why do we slip at all during a pilot evaluation anyway? Why do we require steep turns or S-turns across a road? Most of these maneuvers are “non-operational” intended to build and demonstrate basic piloting skills. Mastering effective rudder usage is probably the most neglected piloting skill. Slips are often not trained or tested, crosswind landings are not required on any pilot test (though they appear disproportionately in accident statistics).
Low-power descending slips (and skids) are only one part of essential rudder usage; this is the basic training ground for rudder usage. The high nose, high power misuse of the rudder is where pilots most often fail and die; the piston-powered “killing zone!” There is a pervasive myth that the base-to-final turn is the most dangerous part of the pattern: dead wrong. The 
initial climb and turn-out is where 89.3% of stalls occur. Pilots who never learned rudder usage; many skid around a left-hand traffic pattern. Every safety-minded pilot and CFI should become familiar with the AOPA analysis of stalls. This clearly shows where the failures are occurring. This same unfortunate pattern is demonstrated in flight training and testing; pilots do not know how to use the rudder effectively!
The “tell” for a savvy CFI or DPE on a flight test is the “two-hands driving” grip on the yoke during take-off. The swerve caused by power application on take-off (incorrected countered by “driving the ailerons”) is another obvious indication of rudder ignorance. These pilots never had the benefit of adequate flight instruction:
“Driving the plane” through a high power, high angle of attack take-off leads directly to the (very common) “danger zone” stall. Join us tomorrow night and fly safely out there (and often)!
Watch this August 11th Webinar on “Learning Rudder and Cross-Coordination.” See “Teaching Rudder.” and “Cross-Coordinated.“
See “SAFE SOCIAL WALL” For more Resources
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Rudder and its use is arguably one of the most mistaught and misunderstood aspects involved with the flying of an airplane.
Many instructors unfortunately believe that when it comes time to explain what the rudder does and why, the approach goes immediately deeply into the “why” at the expense of what the rudder actually “does”.
When a student asks me ” What does the rudder do”? My answer is usually, ” It keeps the tail of the airplane lined up with the nose”.
When the student asks, “How much rudder do I need to use”? ” Watch the nose. The airplane will tell you how much rudder it wants you to use”.
This is not meant to imply over simplification. Simply that in flight instruction there is in many cases a trend by instructors toward leaning heavily on theory at the expense of a much simpler approach that addresses what the rudder does. Once the basics are understood and the student understands that the rudder is a big trim tab that cancels yaw on the lateral axis, it’s much easier for the student to understand why the rudder is used and WHEN the rudder is used.
Once this basic knowledge has been ingrained into the student’s skill set the rest should come easily as the student gets into turn entry and exit vs rudder, power vs rudder, climbs vs rudder, descent vs rudder, climbing and descending turn vs rudder. It should all fit in nicely and be easy to understand.
A sub-subject associated closely with this involves how we as instructors approach the issue of “coordination”.
No one better understands this more than the aerobatic instructor.
From day one when a student gets into an airplane with an instructor for initial basic dual we teach control coordination as COMPLEMENTARY……….meaning aileron and rudder coordinated INTO the turn. This can become confusing later on in basic training when slips are introduced and OPPOSITE rudder is required to be used in a COORDINATED MANNER. (Not to mention when and if a student chooses to go on into aerobatics and has to deal with slow rolls.
All I’m saying here is that as instructors we serve the student better by using a more general approach when teaching things like coordination. After all…….engines in aircraft don’t all have the same torque side; no two airplanes are exactly alike, and the control pressures required to produce a given result while in flight will vary considerably with different aircraft.
Bottom line………….the KISS PRINCIPLE will never fail you as an instructor.
Dudley Henriques
Rudder controls yaw on the VERTICAL AXIS
Sorry guys, senior moment there. LOL
Arguably one of the most destructive events leading to the degrading of both flight instruction AND the basic pilot skill set was the introduction to the general aviation marketplace of the “balanced control airplane’. The Piper Tri-Pacer and the 140 Cherokee are but two examples of this terrible mistake.
It is unfortunate that there have been times in aviation history when marketing and the quality of flight training have collided head on. These well intended designs that were marketed as “making flying easier” unfortunately only succeeded in producing an entire generation of certificated pilots who were quite expert at “driving” an airplane.
As an instructor during this period I can tell you it was quite common for me to discover licensed pilots even in the commercial range that had absolutely no idea what a rudder was for and how to properly use it.
Dudley Henriques
The author has done a great job of making this topic relatable and easy to understand. The points are well-structured, and the content flows smoothly. Aviation Chemical Suppliers