What are the different type of rudder pedal kits and why?
There are TWO TYPES of rudder pedal kits. For discussion, I’ll call them the ERCO kit and the Alon kit. The differences only affect ground handling. With the Alon kit, the pedals control the rudders and the nose wheel only. The wheel/yoke only controls the ailerons. You steer on the ground with the pedals. With the ERCO kit, the pedals control the rudders only. The wheel/yoke controls the ailerons and the nose wheel. With the Alon kit, after touch down, you can turn the ailerons into the wind and totally eliminate any up-wind wing rise. (Not a significant problem on Coupes with the tail at or near 75 inches high.) With the ERCO kit, once you are on the ground, you steer with your hands on the yoke. You’ve practiced this for 10,000 hours in your car, more than 3,600,000 steering wheel control movements. In an emergency, turning the wheel with your hands is your practiced and very well learned (not instinctive) response. (Fred Weick observed this behavior and designed the ERCO kit his wa
