Flight Maneuvers
What the examiner is testing
Flight Maneuvers tests your ability to teach and analyze commercial and instructor-level maneuvers: steep turns, chandelles, lazy eights, eights on pylons, stalls, slow flight, emergency descents, and go-arounds. The examiner watches for maneuver mechanics, division of attention, clearing turns, and correction of common errors.
Maneuver mechanics
- Steep turn: 45 degrees bank, load factor 1.41 g, stall-speed increase about 19 percent. Roll in, add power, maintain altitude with pitch, and scan outside for traffic and heading.
- Chandelle: a maximum-performance 180-degree climbing turn. Establish a 30-degree bank, pitch up smoothly, increase bank slightly, and roll out at 180 degrees near minimum controllable airspeed without stalling.
- Lazy eight: two 180-degree turns with varying pitch and bank, reaching about 30 degrees bank at the 45-degree points. Energy management is the lesson.
- Eights on pylons: pivotal altitude in feet AGL equals true airspeed in knots squared divided by 11.3. At 100 knots, that is about 885 feet AGL; add field elevation for MSL.
- Stalls: teach recognition, AOA reduction, power, rudder coordination, and cleanup. For spins, use the PARE memory aid: power idle, ailerons neutral, rudder opposite the spin, elevator forward.
Worked example
A learner rolls into a steep turn at 90 knots and loses 150 feet before adding power. Compute the load factor at 45 degrees: n = 1 / cos(45) = 1.41. The stall-speed multiplier is the square root of 1.41, or about 1.19. If the clean stall speed is 60 knots, the accelerated stall speed is about 71 knots, so 90 knots is not an immediate stall risk. The altitude loss is a pitch and power-management error, not a stall. The correction is to lead with power, increase back pressure smoothly, and divide attention between the horizon and the airspeed indicator.
Traps that cost marks
- Exceeding 45 degrees bank in a commercial steep turn or failing to hold altitude and heading within ACS tolerances.
- Stalling in a chandelle or rolling out late or early.
- Fixating on the pylon in eights on pylons and ignoring the horizon and traffic.
- Teaching the maneuver without clearing turns or a division-of-attention scan.
- Using the wrong units in the pivotal-altitude formula, such as knots in a miles-per-hour formula.