Back in grade school my teacher used to ask us to underline all the verbs and circle all the nouns, to this day i have never needed to know the difference between a verb or noun, yet I seem to get by just fine.
Chandelle. Whats the point, and is it worth the effort to learn how to perform a maneuver i may never use in my life. If its worth learning, what do i need to learn?
I never understood them either. Seemed like a pretty easy thing to do but never felt I was doing them right. I did my commercial check ride with the FAA and I heard the dreaded “show me some chandelles” AAAHHHHH!
I did about 3 of them in a stiff Oklahoma crosswind, not a clue what he wanted to see, then a he pulled the engine to simulate an engine failure.
The report to my instructor was; “Some of the best chandelles I’ve ever seen.” Go figure?
The chandelle isn’t a maneuver that anyone has a need for in “real life”. It is intended to teach precise aircraft control. ALL of the maneuvers in the commercial PTS are intended to teach a pilot to control his/her aircraft with greater precision. As with all of the maneuvers, you find aspects of them in many everyday operations ie. a descending turn to final, a climbing turn on departure.
When I was a kid they taught us “Stop, Drop, and Roll”.
Another important but seldom useful performance to know.
As NYC said, chandelles, as well as Lazy Eights, are designed to show mastery of the control of the aircraft in all axes at the same time. That is their purpose.
Lazy Eights have roots in cropdusting. 180 degree course reversal with a minimum horizontal radius and the same exit altitude. Important for cropdusters. (a lower exit altitude is bad!)
Chandelles can be useful if your find yourself in a box canyon or somewhere else you need to make a 180 degree course reversal with a minimum radius and maximum altitude gain.
Eights on pylons? Who the heck knows! Grab some buddies in crappy airplanes like a twin turbojets built in new mexico and aged beech piston singles to try out an aviation oriented demolition derby?
[quote="Chandelles can be useful if your find yourself in a box canyon or somewhere else you need to make a 180 degree course reversal with a minimum radius and maximum altitude gain.]
this would imply that each plane has its best climb speed with an associated bank angle, and not a generic speed and angle.[/quote]
^ Exactly. Differing angle/speeds for each airplane.
I never performed chandelles as a civilian pilot. As a military pilot, this maneuver mirrors what a closed pull-up (i.e. turn from a touch and go to downwind) looks like. It could also be used to intercept opposite direction traffic at a higher altitude without purely using the vertical for the turn i.e. an Immelmann.
WHAT HE SAID!
it’s not something you’ll ever use. Learn to be master of the AC. Till you can say that you’re the master, PRACTICE
hey i got a question for you HAISR.
abotu 2 years ago i had a patient from KLUF in arizona F16 pilot and sumulator instructor. (he had Gillian Beret, google it). and i got a 1 hour simulator ride, it was the kind where you get in the sim and it slides into a big 60 sided ball and the screen moves, not me.
anyway, we were flying at about 10000 feet, and i was using the guns to get him in that funnel thing on the HUD, and just as i got him in the bottom of the funnel, he told me to look at my altitude, 1000’agl and dropping at about 10K fpm, 2 seconds later, big fireball on the screen.
my question is at some point long before that, could i have slowed down to make a tighter turn and get him in the funnel quicker?
I’m not a fighter pilot, and I’ve never flown the F-16, so I can’t really answer your question!
If you kept tightening your turn in order to boresight him, then yes, slowing down would have allowed for a tighter turn. However, that’s one of those things that comes with experience in a fighter aircraft, so don’t feel too bad that you crashed an F-16 on your first flight!
Tighter radius, yes, but not necessarily a tighter rate of turn. Dogfighting is a contest of energy management. You do not want to get slow.