PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Purpose and operation of rudder pedal shakers on the Harrier
Old 17th Aug 2008, 11:03
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John Farley

Do a Hover - it avoids G
 
Join Date: Oct 1999
Location: Chichester West Sussex UK
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The anti-VSTOL sideslip package was introduced to address the very high rolling moment with sideslip that the 201sq ft metal wing aircraft exhibited. The trigger was set at 0.06 lateral g because in those conditions if combined with 12 ADD at 100-120 kt you needed half aileron to keep the wings level.

There is no simple answer to your question because the seriousness of the situation depended not just on the 0.06 lateral g being reached but how far and how fast you exceeded that lateral g as well as the ADD and airspeed at the time. However I don’t believe there were any well known dramas after the package which included the HUD display and artificial directional stability reached all service aircraft.

The whole topic now only applies to the remaining metal wing aircraft (the sole one in the UK is the VAAC plus the Indian and Thai Navy fleets).

The 230sq ft plastic wing aircraft has a greatly reduced rolling moment due to sideslip and indeed until aileron droop was added (to increase STO performance in certain circumstances) then said rolling moment was effectively zero at 12 ADD. When I looked at it on my first flight with the plastic wing back in 1979 I had full rudder (gasp if you are a metal wing man) 120kt and 12 ADD yet had to let go of the stick to see if I was holding any aileron.
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