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Aileron trim questions?


Buckaroo

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I'm confused.  I thought that people would transfer fuel by flying with a subtle slip. This would mean that the wings would not be level and that the airplane would not be turning.  Doing so requires some roll input (aileron) and some rudder input (yaw).  Can you have one without the other to transfer fuel?

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Fred,

Yes, you can balance out the fuel in the tanks by flying in a gentle slip, with the wing you want the transfer the fuel into on the low side.

There are two ways of accomplishing this; One is to use the rudder (or rudder trim) to yaw the plane slightly and the ailerons (or aileron trim) to hold the plane on course. The other is to use the aileron to bank the plane slightly and then the rudder to hold it on course.

I think either method will give the same result, but how you go about holding your course makes a difference. If you use a compass or a ground reference point to maintain your heading, the result will be a side slip, which is probably not the preferred approach to use in cruising flight. Alternately, If you use gps to maintain a track its a forward slip, which will get you where your going a little more directly.

Mike Koerner

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Like most my left wing drained about 3 times faster than the right. This is a function of flat tanks and add in a possible  instrument panel not being perfectly lined up or the instrument in the panel not perfectly lined up. People many times put their elbows and hands on the instrument panel to get out of the plane and can throw it off enough that it is not noticeable, but can affect the ball alignment. Can also be a fuel hose with a slight reduced radius. Maybe during wing install the wings aren't perfect in their setup, but not enough to notice with the human eye. Who knows.

Several things can add up here.

 

When I flew cross country I just trimed to keep the ball 1/2 ball out to the left. When I did this my fuel was pretty equal at landing. During short hops or pattern work who cares.

 

Remember this: The fuel will follow the ball.

 

 

So if your left tank drains faster the ball should be out to the left about 1/2. If the right drains faster it should be out to the right 1/2 ball.

 

If you have a really low tank on one side and a lot on the other then you can feed the engine and transfer fuel by flying 1 full ball out to the low fuel tank wing. Since the hoses are 5/16" it is not a fast transfer so you have to leave it that way for a while.

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