Any pilots please tell me

Why are you interested just out of curiosity?

Thinks: Sebring

It all depends how naturally stable in roll the aeroplane is.

Something like a Cessna 152 / 172 / 182 will probably plough on in a straight line quite happily, till given a boot of rudder.

I used to have an Aeronca Chief derivative that would fly all day on rudder-only control and the trimmer was powerful enough to substitute for the elevator.

In fact putting in aileron input generated so much adverse yaw that it was almost more trouble than it was worth!

Mind you, I wouldn’t advocate trying aileron-less control in something like a Pitts!!

Pushpak aka Aeronca Chief. Loadsa roll, little aileron!

A few occasions are on record of Crusaders and Phantoms taking off with the outer panels folded during the Viet Nam conflict, usually at night. It is actually quite possible to retain quite a respectable ammount of roll control in both types as their ailerons are inboard of the fold. Not as rapid a roll rate as with the wings properly deployed of course but still flyable

Be very, very careful about feeding in a bootful of rudder at high alpha / low airspeed. If you haven’t worked through spin recovery / aerobatics, the after-take off checks would not be a good time to start.

Other than that, the advice given in the earlier replies is sound for types of the size, weight and performance that are relevant to most of us in PPL flying. Don’t expect the same success on anything with significant sweepback, or that has major roll-yaw coupling – you can get some effects (including pitching ones) that really surprise you.

The only case I have heard of where ailerons weren’t available in practice was a Fleet Air Arm pilot who is supposed to have catapulted off with wings folded. I don’t know if he landed the jet safely or not, but in any case this sounds a lot like urban myth to me!

As the boys have said, you can use rudder, depending on Aircraft. It also depends why the ailerons don’t work, eg jammed/lock in/not connected. If not connected an unbalanced, undampened aileron might go full movement.

I’ve done it, and took the plane to just above the threshold using purely power & rudder (simulated elevator & aileron failure). Takes 5 minutes to learn how to control the a/c. Once done the landing may be a bit rough but you’ll most certainly walk away from it.

If you had no aileron control you would simply use the rudder to turn. Its harder but you just have to be careful. I’ve never trained for it personally but a good friend of mine practiced it with his instructor and he talked me through it. It can be done.

so in a steep climb from the runway at low airspeed it would be grim to say the least ?

Well in a light aircraft you wouldn’t be in a steep climb after takeoff, but having a high angle of attack and low airspeed wouldn’t be grim. It may only become grim if you reached a stall and even somehow manage to enter a spin. However a light aircraft should never reach the point of being in the air with no aileron control if it had a competent pilot.

Why are you interested just out of curiosity?

Cheers, Huw:)

so in a steep climb from the runway at low airspeed it would be grim to say the least ?

I`m no pilot and wondered if there was any pilots out there that could tell me what would happen if a light aircraft took off with no aileron control?

You wouldn’t be able to roll the aircraft into a banking turn with them, you would have to use the rudde rto turn and get back to the airfield, which would be very difficult as controlling consiquential yaw and even roll would be difficult to say the least. It would be a feat to get back down onto the runway safely, the safest thing to do may infact be keep going straight and look for a nice field to land in. Someone can probably give a better answer.

Cheers, Huw