A Study of Conventional Airplane Handling Qualities Requirements

Book excerpt: The report uses as a point of departure the concept that control of bank angle is the primary piloting task in maintaining or changing heading. Regulation of the bank angle to maintain heading is a close-loop tracking task in which the pilot applies aileron control as a function of observed bank angle error. For large heading changes, the steady-state bank angle consistent with available or desired load factor is attained in an open-loop fashion; it is then regulated in a closed-loop fashion throughout the remainder of the turn. For the transient entry and exit from the turn, the pilot is not concerned with bank angle per se, but rather with attaining a mentally commanded bank angle with tolerable accuracy in a reasonable time, and with an easily learned and comfortable program of aileron movements.