Avionics and instruments: Difference between revisions

The turn and bank coordinator provides two pieces of information -- the bank of the wings, and the degree of coordination between the ailerons and rudder in a turn. As the plane is rolled left and right, the wings on the turn and bank coordinator rotate as well. To make a proper turn, the ball in the middle of the turn and bank coordinator should stay centered. If the wings are rolled without enough rudder applied, the ball will move to the side. There are markings on the side of the turn and bank coordinator that indicate the amount of bank to apply to make a standard rate turn. At this rate, the plane will make one complete turn in two minutes. The gyroscope powering the turn and bank coordinator is normally electrically powered, unlike the attitude indicator, which is normally powered by a vacuum generated by the engine. If one of the two instruments fails, the other one is likely to continue to work. In FlightGear, it is possible to enable automatic turn coordination, in the event you don't have rudder pedals. To do so, start FlightGear with the [[Command Line Parameters|commandline argument]] <tt>--enable-auto-coordination</tt>. * todo: describe how to properly use a rudder to make a coordinated turn