rudder-hardover: daily C challenge, 24 October 2026

Your mission

Return the rudder deflection for a pilot command, with the valve working or jammed.

today's brief

Colorado Springs, March 3 1991. United 585 rolls right on approach and goes into a park. The NTSB takes years to name the cause: a dual servo valve that could jam and drive the rudder hard over the wrong way. USAir 427 went down near Pittsburgh the same way in 1994 before anyone believed it. Push left, get full right.

See it in action

deflection(5, 20, 0): 5
deflection(5, 20, 1): -20
deflection(-3, 20, 1): 20

Your checklist

command is the pilot input, negative for left and positive for right. limit is the rudder's full travel and is always positive.
With jammed at 0 the rudder follows the pilot: return command.
With jammed at 1 the rudder goes to full travel on the other side: return -limit for a command to the right, and limit for a command to the left.
A command of 0 leaves the rudder at 0 whatever the valve is doing.

Constraints

Expected file: rudder.c
Allowed functions: None. Write every helper yourself.