Anyone tried pneumatic rudders like this?

I am thinking of building a replacement for my older CH pedals as one brake has gone and I can't be bothered fixing. There are a few things I dont like about them anyway.

So I was thinking of ways to get a bit of a feel and at first I thought of hydraulics, then thought I didn't want to deal with the extra complexity of the sealing/pistons so now I am thinking of air.

Hydraulic or not, these are not supposed to be driven with a motor/pump. The idea would be that both pistons would be connected to the same air chamber so that one piston being pushed in would force the other piston out. I.e. push one pedal would force on piston in pushing the left pedal out.

They would both be connected to a ball valve which would allow me to control the flow of air and therefore how much force is required to move the pedals.

I would have to try and keep the volume of air in between as small as possible so that there would be little compression.


I have seen gas struts but then there is no control of the pressure and they are reasonably expensive/hard to get hold of here while it doesnt take me too long to make the rams.

So, anyone played with this configuration? How did it go? I am a little worried that compression will be an issue and that it could feel too squishy.. Here hydraulics would work but the extra complexity in making the rams and sealing them is putting me off..

Thanks!

I've tried a real training simulator (Diamond 42).
It had pneumatics to control the hardness of the stick and pedals, and it worked super fine, but I don't know how it's made.
But I think if you use only air system and not something mechanical averaging, you'll probably get a spring effect and the pedals are not sequential 100%

Thanks for replying. You are right, they will need to be linked together so that their movements are in unison and so that they don't get out of sync but unlike most rudders the friction will not be applied via the mechanical linkage.

I ran out of bronze so I will have to wait until next week to make the pistons..

Just a thought, and I don't know if it's feasible, but I was musing over using a cheap pair of back-to-back foot pumps for this a while ago.

Never got round to trying it though.

Best Regards,

Rob