3 ms·

If this is so often used, why is it not part of the design of the plane? Yes, I hear what people are saying that there's a slip indicator that does the same thi

If this is so often used, why is it not part of the design of the plane? Yes, I hear what people are saying that there's a slip indicator that does the same thing. But the fact remains that many people still use a yaw string anyway. Wouldn't a plane with a built-in yaw string design sell better? Taping a string to a window seems to be far less robust.

felurx 5y ago
Hm, I think there might be a few factors at play here. First of all, the piece of string just seems to work more than good enough. Why bother with something that'd add manufacturing and design cost, be harder to repair and is less adjustable to the pilots/clubs needs(/opinions), when what we're currently doing is fine and costs literal cents? Also, I'm not sure that it'd be even possible to do that much better. You need something light, flexible and visible. Almost sounds like the definition of a red piece of string. And then you need to attach it somewhere useful (where you can see it, ideally without looking at your instruments etc), which in most cases would be the canopy. And then you need to somehow affix it. The piece of tape holds well enough during flight, and anything more permanent could be annoying during maintenance etc or might attack the material of the canopy. Changing up the design might also be annoying at the least, since you'd have to relearn a bit. In the end, there's just not much wrong with the string. I works, it works well, and changing it is just not worth it.