Dogfight techniques : tutorial video

[jf1981]

The below does'nt apply 100% to 109 which lacks, to my knowledge, rudder trim.

Originally Posted by Sutts

"Feet may be taken off the rudder controls to save fatigue, as its use is only necessary when taking-off, landing, flying at low speed or aerobatics. Even aerobatics, such as rolls, can be done with feet clear of the rudder control, but rudder would be needed for recovery of the manoevre were badly done."

Does anyone else find this surprising? I always thought that using the rudder to keep the ball centered in turns was an essential part of efficient flying and an automatic habit with seasoned pilots. Is it possible that the spit kept itself perfectly aligned in turns without use of the rudder?

I guess it's all in the question, rudder may be necessary during take off, landing & aerobatics.
On some other occasions too, it may be usefull, but can be released most of the time, in general.

Further, you can trim the rudder for long level flights if you want.

Just another trick, you'll notice than triming the rudder up to neutral slip often adds to roll unbalance in level flights, hence a way to "trim the aicraft" in the logitudinal axis, on roll, you can adjust rpm setting to do so. That's to say reducing the rpm at constant power tends to add torque, add left roll effect, and vice & versa. In practice, the aircraft wants to roll right most of the time in level flight, especially if you use rudder trim. In that case, just reduce rpm until the effect finds its full counterpart. "+ power - rpm => left roll / - power + rpm => right roll"

And another thing, a pilot said in a recent video that in a combat area, he always flew with the aircraft with some slip e.g. rudder trim, on purpose away from neutral, hence in a constant slip of just a few degrees, hence, any surprise attack he'd receive would result in shots passing by as the opponent fires at apparent direction.

I did'nt try it too much but has to work fine.