Quote:
Originally Posted by Vengeanze
Not sure I follow u all the way but I always thought that the sliding of the plane was a tourque thing and u countermeasure it with rudder trim (as aileron trim didn't exist).
But perhaps you're talking about a difficulty setting.
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You're basically right but the wings could only be level under one particular set of circumstances when the torque is perfectly counteracted by rudder alone. Under other conditions one wing will be low as the rudder cannot perfectly offset the torque under all conditions.
Here's what Alex Henshaw said about production testing the Spitfire MkV:
"After a thorough pre-flight check I would take off and, once at circuit height, I would trim the aircraft and try to get her to fly straight-and-level with hands off the stick. The MarkV lacked aileron trim tabs and most new ones tended to fly one wing low. When that happened I would land immediately and a mechanic would bend the trailing edge of the aileron up or down and then bend the other aileron in the opposite direction. Then I'd take off again and trim it hands off to see if the wing dropping had been cleared." They could often get it right first time.
The wing high/low tendency would return if he went outside the speed/power etc settings by some margin as the torque would be different.