Loss of rudder authority in PA38
I'm a low hours PPL with experience on Katanas, Grobs, Cessnas and now Pipers.
I was taking off the other day and applied right-rudder. As the speed picked up, I found that I had to use more and more right-rudder until I was applying full right-rudder. At this point (around 40kts IAS) the nose of the A/C yawed left despite the fully deflected rudder controls. The speed was now ~55kts IAS so I elected to rotate (rather than brake - not enough space) before the A/C left the runway on the LHS.
The crosswind was 6kts from right to left and a jet (737) had recently taken off but I had waited about 2 minutes after it had cleared the runway. My subsequent landing was fine and went without incident.
I had just completed about an hour in the circuit doing touch&gos and nothing like this had happened during the previous take offs.
Would wake turbulence cause this problem?
Thanks for reading...
Loki.