Slipping and Skidding - Dumb Question.
I have had continual trouble understanding slipping and skidding and the dangers inherent since I started flying. I will remove this thread if requested. My problem was exacerbated by sailing for fifty years - which made me extremely tolerant of out of balance situations, experience with a Piper Tripacer with linked rudder and ailerons and some fairly perfunctory flight instruction apart from my natural state of stupidity.
I get the idea of coordinated turns, especially base to final, and always ensure that this happens. However I could never quite work out why and how this was an issue. I just accepted ‘’step on the ball”.
I think I have finally understood this in a backhanded way - it’s about keeping the center of lift, laterally, directly above/ below the centre of gravity and not to the outside of the turn (skidding) or to the inside (slipping). My logic, FWIW, is that skidding produces an effect where the “upper” outside wing is producing more lift than the lower wing because the airflow is not parallel with the longitudinal access (too much rudder). This has the effect of increasing bank because the lateral displacement increases the load on the lower wing. The unconscious response is to try and raise the lower wing with aileron - increased drag, increased AoA and kablooey! You need to keep the centre of lift over the Cg and the tool for that is rudder. Does this explanation make sense to anyone?
In dinghy sailing downwind parlance this is analogous to “keeping the boat under the spinnaker” as opposed to trying to force the sail to stay over the boat. The first method works, the latter ends in disaster akin to a stall and spin, though not with the same consequences.