Aerobatic Maneuvers

Aerobatic maneuvers are maneuvers involving aircraft in unusual attitudes, in air shows, dog fights or competition aerobatics. Aerobatics can be performed by a single aircraft or in formation with several others. Nearly all aircraft are capable of performing aerobatics maneuvers of some kind, although it may not be legal to do so in certain aircraft.

Aerobatics consist of four basic maneuvers: Loops, Rolls, Spins, and Hammerheads. Most aerobatic figures are composites of these basic maneuvers.

Some examples of aerobatic maneuvers are:

Chandelle: consists of a maximum climb, maximum bank combination to obtain the greatest altitude gain for a given airspeed and at the same time makeing a 180 degree course reversal.

Cuban Eight: 5/8's of a loop to the 45 degree line, 1/2 roll, 5/8's of a loop to the 45 degree line, 1/2 roll, 3/8's of a loop to level flight. (Half of the Cuban Eight is called a "half Cuban Eight", and the figure can be flown backwards, known as a "Reverse Cuban Eight")

Reverse Half-Cuban: From level flight pull or push to the 45 degree line, 1/2 roll, then 5/8's of a loop.
Dive; extreme nose down attitude(not necessarily vertical), resulting increase in airspeed, and descent rate.

Hammerhead or Stall Turn: 1/4 loop (pull or push) to vertical, as momentum/airspeed decreases, rudder is applied and the aircraft rotates around its yaw axis, the nose falls through the horizon and points towards the ground, a momentary pause is made to draw the vertical down line, and 1/4 loop to level flight. This figure is sometimes called a stall turn, which is a misnomer, because the aircraft never actually stalls.

The maneuver is performed when the airplane decelerates through 20 - 30kts (more or less, depending on the airplane flown) of airspeed. The cartwheel portion of the hammerhead is performed with full rudder and full opposite aileron. Gyroscopic forces from the propeller during the rapid rate of yaw will produce a pitching and rolling moment and a degree of forward stick will be required to keep the airplane from coming off-line over the top.

The yaw is stopped with opposite rudder while the ailerons and elevator remain in position, then once the yaw is stopped and the airplane is pointed down vertically, all controls are returned to neutral together. Although they can be flown left or right in any airplane with the proper technique, a hammerhead is best flown to the left with a clockwise rotating prop, and to the right with an anticlockwise rotating prop (as in a Yakovlev type), due to propeller torque/gyroscopic effects.

Immelmann, Immelmann Turn, or Roll-off-the-top: 1/2 looping up followed by half a roll. There should be no pause between the end of the looping section and the start of the roll to upright.

• inside loop: a vertical circle from straight and level (pulling the nose up)
• outside loop: id. (nose down - draws extreme negative G)
• English Bunt: half an outside loop starting from upright, straight and level flight. (The pilot pushes the stick forward and draws a half circle in the sky from the top down.)

Lazy eight: 1/4 looping up, wingover (left or right), 1/2 looping down+up, wingover (right or left), 1/4 looping down

Lomcovak: family of autorotational, tumbling figures. In all varierties, the aircraft appears to tumble out of control. For example, one style involves the aircraft tumbling (simultaneously) nose over tail and wingtip over wingtip in a negative-G, gyroscopic condition. Introduced by Czechs such as Ladislav Bezak, and others.

Pugachev's Cobra: the nose of the aircraft is pulled up suddenly. The aircraft pitches up to 90° angle of attack, and almost stalls in mid air. The nose then falls back to the horizontal, and the aircraft accelerates away in the original direction.

Roll: 360° revolution about the longitudinal axis

Snap Roll: Sometimes called a flick roll or simply flick. A family of rapid autorotational or "horizontal spins," not unlike spins. Rotation is induced by a rapid pitch input followed by rapid yaw input, thus stalling one wing, but not the other. This inbalance in lift causes the high speed roll by the unstalled wing.

Spin: a family of auto-rotational maneuvers, consisting of upright or inverted and normal or "flat". Two components must exist to spin an aircraft: critical angle of attack (COA) and yaw.

Split-S; Essentially an Immelmann in reverse. Half roll (from erect to inverted) followed by positive pitch to give a half loop. Converts altitude to airspeed, and reverses direction.

Standing eight; inside loop, 1/2 roll (inverts the aircraft), inside loop (towards the ground) 1/2 roll on top of the loop

Tailslide: 1/4 looping up, straight vertical (full power) until the aircraft loses momentum. The aircraft falls backwards, the nose drops through the horizon to the vertical, 1/4 loop (push or pull) to recover.

Wingover: left or right 180° tight turn (yaw) at the top of a 1/4 looping (up)

Zoom: extreme nose up attitude (not necessarily vertical), resulting in airspeed loss (not in a jet), and increased rate of climb.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Uses material from the article Aerobatic maneuver.