Weathercock effect in turns
Hey can someone explain this so called weathercock effect while in a turn? It seems new to me and I've heard a few people throwing the term around a bit but never really explaining haha (maybe they don't even know what it really is!)
My understanding is this effect is apparently the reason airplanes will go around in a turn and without it, the aircraft wouldn't turn.
To me it sounds interesting... I'd have to say it's got nothing to do with weathercocking. I'd say the elevator and rudder have a bit part to do with it. Even in straight and level flight the elevator might be deflected up to keep level, depending on the airspeed and aircraft. As you bank the aircraft you progressively need more up elevator to keep the nose up, but also that helps you to point the aircraft into the center of the turn coincidentally. Now for theory purposes, supposed you could stay level at 90 degrees of bank, all that turning action would be from the elevator IMO. Now in straight and level, the rudder is in the same position as the elevator in the 90 degree bank, so it would be the one to point the aircraft into the center of the turn. So progressively that elevator is getting more and more control of the rate of turn of the aircraft as the bank is increased. If you let go of the elevator, the airplane will kinda leave the turn... if this was weathercocking, why doesn't it keep in the turn??
Plus, based on what I know of things that weathercock, they're one piece and don't have "control surfaces". So they wouldn't be able to alter the air, they just point parallel with the wind. So I'd say the actual majority of the turning is caused by elevator.. the more bank, the more elevator required and the tighter the turn. Obviously you have the horizontal lift vector which pulls it into the center too. But the elevator is the one "pointing" the nose in the turn.
That's my take on it... but if anyone has some good explanation of this weathercocking theory I'd like to know a bit more about it.
Cheers!
J