After years of simming, I can't believe I am still confused about when to switch the Yaw Damper on. I always thought you have it OFF on the ground and activate it after liftoff some time and then de-activate it shortly before touchdown. But it seems on some new sophisticated commercial add-ons that I have, it is already turned ON on the ground and said to be maintained like that--i.e., ON all the time.What is the correct procedure/use of the YD?Thanks!JS

every company has a different policy regarding it. There is no reason for it to be on while on the ground, and personally in the sim I feel it causes loss of percise control movements while landing and taking off

I find that the yaw damper is to be used most of the time, except on certain aircraft that have a yaw damper that restricts the rudder movement. This is not good trying to crab on in!Off the top of my head, when operating the RFP 747 and DF 727 "wheels down, damper off"Otherwise I sometimes skid off the runway!I believe I've seen a real world pilot say they're SOP for the 727 was to turn off the yaw damper when they drop the wheels.

That's what we were told by the real world 747-200 captains who vetted RFP, gear down, damper off.Ed GreenKCLThttp://www.panelshop.com/DEV.jpg

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Aha! This is getting interesting. Appreciate posts, thanks!JS

I know that some panels require that it is off to intercept the gs on a ILS landing.

In the King Air (and IIRC, in the EMB-120) the Yaw damper is required any time the aircraft is to be operated above 17,000 ft and any time the autopilot is switched on.In the King Air, when you activate the AP, the YD is automatically switched on (which is how it works in the Aeroworx King Air, too). Switching the YD off is done any time after you've gone below 17,000 feet and come off the AP, so you don't need to come off it until you're on short final.

In Dreamfleets 727, switching off the yaw damper switches off the autopilot, Im sure thats the way it is in real life

Hello All, Well, in my experience in 727-100's we activated the YD at 1000 ft, and turned it off most times at 400 ft. In other words, wheels up, flaps at 5 or less, YD is turned on. On approach with the AP on an ILS approach, YD stays on until you kill the AP, which you then turn it off. Or, you can cheat and just turn the YD off and it switches off the AP automaticaly. AP and YD are tied in together because of the 727's Dutch Roll.Best, Clayhttp://www.dreamfleet2000.com/gfx/images/F...ers/Dopke01.jpgClayton T. Dopke (Clay)Major, USAF (retired)"Drac"

It depends on the aircraft type. On smaller turboprop aircraft, the YD will reduce the rudder's travel and therefor you have to make sure you deactive it for takeoff and landing to cope with an engine failure.On bigger aircraft, such as jets, the yaw damper is normally on for the entire flight regime. The yaw damper also take cares of turn coordination and manual input is always possible.Unfortunately, the yaw damper modelled in FS is very basic - it reduces the rudder's travel and only a very limited of override is possible (in FS2004) while in FS2002 no overriding was possible.Regards,Mark