Why do plane and helicopter pilots have to pysically fight with their control stick when flying and something goes wrong?
In: Engineering
It depends on the failure, if you lose an engine in a twin then you have to step on the running engine with the rudder otherwise the plane will yaw in the direction of the failed engine due to the power imbalance – and you have to do it very quickly. Novice pilots will instinctively push the throttle forward on the still running engine (which you need to do to maintain power) but will forget to step on the rudder. Twin engine-out training is one of the most challenging and dangerous parts of flight training. It accounts for a large share of deaths in general aviation and a good chunk of them are during training.
The other factor is that often the autopilot will shut off during a catastrophic failure and you need to make up for whatever the autopilot was doing for you. It isn’t normally very dramatic, though, either in engine out or auto-pilot disconnect situations. The pilot will grab the controls and make fluid and firm inputs to the controls to keep the aircraft in balanced flight.
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