Aerobatic Figures

How to fly a chandelle or wing-over

The Chandelle or Wing Over, is a glider aerobatic figure and often features in the BAeA Club Known sequence for Powered aircraft as well. Sometimes it appears in Sports unknown sequences and when it does, causes great problems as it is not easy. It is a non-Aresti figure and therefore is not in the CIVA Aresti catalog for powered aerobatics. It is essentially a 45° up line followed by a wing-over and a 45°down line. It is important to fly it properly if you are to do well in Club level competitions.

How to fly a half cuban eight

The half Cuban-Eight combines a loop element, a 45° line and a half roll. It is a nice aerobatic figure and regularly features in Club, Sportsman and Intermediate level competitions as well as in later levels, though there tend to be several additional embellishments at Advanced and Unlimited. Whilst relatively straight forward, there are several key training points that differentiate those who fly it well and those that don’t.

Hammerhead

The stall turn is a magnificent aerobatic figure. It looks graceful and elegant when flown well but is actually very challenging to fly perfectly and the further up the aerobatic ladder you go, the more challenging it becomes with ever more difficult embellishments and energy management issues. The vanilla stall turn has a k factor of 17, making it one of the higher scoring figures, consequently if you aim to win at club or Sports level, mastering this figure is essential.

Hasell Checks and Why Do we Do Them

Aimed at – entry level aerobatics

HASELL checks are designed to make sure everything is good prior to doing stuff that might result in the aircraft entering an unusual attitude, being on the fringes of control or being out of control and consuming a large amount of height during the recovery process.

Humpty Bump

A ‘Humpty Bump’ is an aerobatic figure that comprises of two straight lines joined by a looping element. The lines can be either vertical or 45° lines and can start going up or down. Depending on the aerobatic level, there are often plenty of embellishments ensuring the K factor is high. Many Humpty Bumps will have a combination of slow and flick rolls on the up, down or 45° lines.

How to fly a loop

In aerobatics, all manoeuvres stem from just a few “prime” figures and the loop is probably the most important of these since it is most prevalent. Even a Stall Turn (Hammer Head for our colonial cousins) incorporates a quarter loop at entry and exit. If you are to succeed in aerobatic competitions, it is therefore essential that you master the prime figures.

Quarter Clover

Aimed at – entry level aerobatics

Inward rolling turn

The rolling turn or rolling circle is the king of aerobatics. I remember how I worked so hard to perfect it and thought I was flying it quite well, I was always a bit miffed that the judges didn’t agree but several years later I realised how much better I was able to fly it! The rolling circle is one of those figures that constantly improves with practice and is very rewarding to fly well. It is also quite remarkable how poor some of the “experts” are at flying it, they seem to rush it so as not to give the judges time to see the faults.

Slow roll or aileron rolls

Slow rolls are often referred to as aileron rolls to distinguish them from ‘flick’ or ‘snap’ rolls (something I will discuss in a separate post). The main difference being that in a slow roll, the rotation is primarily driven by ailerons, whereas in a ‘flick’ roll it is driven by auto-rotation caused by the application of pitch and rudder.

Positive flick (snap) roll

A well executed flick roll (called ‘snap roll’ in the USA) is a truly spectacular figure. It should be explosive and dramatic but also meet the judging criteria. The figure is executed so rapidly that it is difficult to judge. In an effort to improve judging accuracy, judges can allocate a “Perception Zero” or PZ. This means that the judge believes the aircraft did not flick but if other judges score the figure, the judges personal scoring mark, is not degraded. This little quirk means that it is quite easy to average a low score! The reality is that at world level unlimited competitions, the pilot who can most consistently flick well is likely to win. It is therefore absolutely critical to perfect this figure.

Spinning

During your flying training, you may have been lucky enough to experience a spin. Unfortunately it is no-longer a syllabus requirement for either the PPL or CPL course. So quite probably you will only have been taught how to avoid spin situations. Undoubtedly this absence of experience will have contributed to the mystique of the spin.

How to fly an aerobatic steep turn

An aerobatic steep turn is different to a steep turn learned in PPL training. It is a turn of at least 60° angle of bank where the bank angle is initiated without turning, then the aircraft is made to turn, the turn is then stopped and then the bank rolled off before the turn starts and taken off after the turn is completed. Steep Turns regularly feature in Club, Sportsman and Intermediate level competitions, the later often inverted, so it is important to learn to fly them well.

Center of gravity track (CGT) and zero lift axis (ZLA)

To judge aerobatics we look at the aircraft and measure either the imaginary line it draws (Centre of Gravity Track) or the direction the aircraft is pointing along the aircrafts axis (Zero Lift Axis). We therefore need to understand these two concepts and then understand which to apply and when.

How to fly

Aerobatic figures

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