Originally Posted by
icaro_2992
What if a pilot hits full rudder deflection in cruise by mistake?
Thats one of the reasons i never let a cabin crew occupy a flight deck seat inflight!!
In principle, if it's done precisely once, and the recovery is done in a suitably benign fashion, and assuming all the sums were added up correctly during design and development, and any repairs or mods have been done to the right standard, then the various important bits of the airframe will stay attached.
All bets are off if the recovery is in any way hamfisted (which, given the hamfistedness of applying the input to start with, is a condition you might consider a bit optimistic....)
The structure is protected either through the natural hinge moment limiting (if the PCUs are weak enough, then you can't apply enough rudder to break anything) or through active control limiting (either through a relatively 'dumb' travel limiter or through fancier FBW-type limiting) and whatever the rudder is that CAn be input, the relevant FAR25/CS25 design case requires adequate structural strength for.
In cases where the stop (either a positive stop, through an RTL or similar or an 'effective' stop through hinge moment limiting) is not provided actually at the pedals, then there will be some amount of squishyness at the pedals - although the rudder itself wont move further, increasing pilot force will deflect/distort system components. Usually the greatly increased force per pedal deflection that comes into play is pretty apparent to a pilot, but it depends on the amount of lead in the boot.