Any advice/instructional video on coordinated turns please - keeping ball centred?

[Sutts99]

Not sure if I'm lacking technique when trying to keep ball centred during manoeuvres.  Any advice or training available please?

Things like, do I apply rudder in anticipation of the turn or in reaction to the ball moving?  

Do I keep the rudder position after centering the ball or go back to neutral rudder?

What rudder action when wanting to come out of a turn?  I often find the ball doing weird stuff and I lose coordination for a short time.

Thanks!

[kablamoman]

This is something that isn't always that well modeled in sims, and even though it's actually pretty good in DCS, it can still be hard to get a feel for it without force feedback and a bit of "seat of your pants" feel.

That said, a good way to think about it is that you should really only need to modulate your rudder pressure in coordination with your aileron input. So, when you're rolling into, and when you're rolling out of turns. Once your angle of bank is established you ease off the rudder the same way you ease off the aileron input.

Another thing that may help, and I find actually works fairly well in DCS (like in real life) as opposed to some other sims is to *not* focus on the ball too much. You can check the ball once in a while when you're in level flight or after power changes just to make sure you're in trim, but don't use it as your primary indicator for rolling into and out of turns. Instead look out front and use a reference point around which your attitude should roll. The reflector gunsights in the warbirds are usually pretty good references for this. The idea is to keep the point of the gunsight fixed in pitch and yaw as you roll into and out your bank. Use just enough rudder input to make this happen.

[Sutts99]

Thanks for the advice kablamoman, I'll give that a try.

[Andy1966]

Hi, i saw your post, and made this video, I see a lot of posts of this subject. don't make it more complicated than it is!  https://youtu.be/2GdRfCMHR00

 

Edited February 8, 2023 by Andy1966
remembered how to use link

[Sutts99]

Thanks Andy, good stuff

[Andy1966]

you are very welcome. If you have any other questions feel free to ask, this is a very friendly forum for the most part.

[Yo-Yo]

I'd like to add that "clean" coordinated maneuvers not only are not necessary, for example, during dogfight but must be avoided. Dirty piloting with a lot of sideslip intended or unintended is a good thing to deceive your opponents. Centered ball is a goal for a cruise trim and for low speed/high AoA flight.

[motoadve]

During dogfighting centered ball is important to have when you dive and climb, so you get the best performance you can get out of your plane (unless you are being chased and want to be un coordinated on purpose to throw the enemy's shots off).

Use the older P47 in DCS, it has a slip indicator on the base of the gunsight, that will be a good place to start training, step on the ball, and when in doubt its better to have the ball to the inside of the turn you are making than the outside, sometimes during dogfights we can also get slow and this can prevent a stall spin.

[grafspee]

When you shot guns, drop bombs or shot rockets you want to be coordinated too.

Edited February 13, 2023 by grafspee

[Brigg]

15 hours ago, grafspee said:

When you shot guns, drop bombs or shot rockets you want to be coordinated too.

 

absolutely this ^^^

 

[Nealius]

On 2/7/2023 at 12:37 AM, Sutts99 said:

Things like, do I apply rudder in anticipation of the turn or in reaction to the ball moving?

This could be totally a misperception on my part, but I feel that this depends on the aircraft. In reaction to the ball is always too late. In most cases I understand coordination to be simultaneous aileron and rudder input. However, in some aircraft like the Jug, I sometimes find the aircraft reacting better with a slight (as in milliseconds) lead on rudder before moving the stick. I have no idea if this is normal or user error, or maybe I'm unknowingly at a higher than usual AoA requiring lead with rudder.