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straight back. There's some drag on the prop, and that tends to make the wash behind it come off in a spiral fashion. The problem comes when that spiral flow meets the rudder. If the rudder/fin is mounted high, the plane will turn (yaw) left because only the top part of the spiral hits it. On a taildragger at rest, tail down, this may not be the case, and even the reverse may be true because the propwash must be mostly parallel to the ground. P-Factor: Asymmetrical thrust is most apparent with taildraggers because it's mostly a function of the prop not being perpendicular to the oncoming airflow - but that can also happen with any plane when at a high angle of attack, like right AFTER takeoff. When the air is coming into the prop at an angle instead of square to it, one side of the prop operates at a higher angle of attack than the other, and the resultant thrust is no longer acting on the planes' centerline, but off to one side. That makes the plane want to turn. The usual case, nose high, gives a left turn. Torque: Our props have a certain amount of drag - and the torque (twisting force) the engine exerts on the air is, in opposite fashion, also exerted through the engine mount to the airplane. Since most all of our props turn to the right, that means there is a force trying to twist (roll) the airplane to the left. Note that this force is about the ROLL axis - the torque forces do not by themselves TURN or yaw the plane, as do the previous two effects. We automatically take care of this with ailerons in keeping the wings level, and it really doesn't take much force from the ailerons to do it. On the ground, all torque forces are countered by the wheels. Gyroscopic effect: The weight of the fast-turning prop creates a gyroscope, which will resist any change in the direction of its rotating axis. This is easily overcome by the planes controls - but the more detectable gyroscopic effect comes AS THE DIRECTION IS CHANGING. As the planes direction is changing, as in a sudden pull-up, gyroscopic forces try to rotate the plane about an axis 90 degrees to the axis you're forcing it. In the example of a sudden pitch up, the gyro action from the prop will try to force the plane to turn (YAW) to the right. Don't believe it? Try it! The next time you're holding your plane nose up at full power to check your mixture, rotate the plane sharply nose up and down. You'll feel the sideways pressure from this force. In flight, its almost negligible, except perhaps at near zero airspeed if you do a VERY quick stall turn or flopover. So what is one to do? Answer- know what your planes characteristics are, and compensate - with THE RUDDER! Let's take an example; the Piper Cub, well known for its tendency to ground loop on take off. Here's what happens: you increase the throttle quickly, and immediately have to put in some right rudder to keep it from continue
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