planeandpilotmag.com 41While you’re already slowed down, why not explore a
stall or two? If you’re uneasy about putting your airplane
into a stall, it’s probably because you’ve avoided practic-
ing a stall-and-recovery sequence for far too long. A cer-
tificated airplane, loaded in its normal center of gravity
range, is easily recoverable from a simple stall with an
altitude loss of 200 feet or less. Given a safe AGL altitude
of 2,000 feet or so, decelerate at a 1-knot-per-second rate
until the onset of stall buffet or loss-of-control is felt.
Beware of yawed flight at this point; the stick or yoke
should remain neutral in roll, and rudder pressure should
be applied as needed to hold the slip ball in center. Never
attempt to stall an airplane while holding a wing up with
an uncentered stick. As soon as the stall manifests itself,
briskly move the stick forward and stop any turn with
opposite rudder. Increasing power minimizes altitude
loss, but it’s not the primary means of stall recovery.
COMMERCIAL GRADE CHALLENGES
Once you’ve regained some skill and are feeling com-
fortable with the aircraft, doing some lazy eights and
chandelles gives a heightened challenge—as long as
you continue to seek perfection, not just exhilarate in
banking-and-yanking. There are many ways to steer an
airplane through these commercial-grade maneuvers,
but not all of them are valuable for self-improvement.
The intent is to fly them smoothly and with precision,
not just to do zooms and wingovers.
The chandelle is simply a 180-degree climbing turn,
done while reducing airspeed from entry speed to just
above stall, as a means of maximizing altitude gain. Start
by rolling into a target maximum bank angle, then pull the
nose up, maintaining constant bank while applying full
climb power. The G-load applied at pull-up should result
in achieving maximum pitch attitude at the 90-degree
point; after reaching this point, bank is gradually reduced
during another 90 degrees of turn as airspeed dissipates
to just above stalling speed. We then recover into level
flight without sacrificing any of the hard-won altitude.
This will require constant stick-and-rudder adjustment in
fine increments as the airplane slows and changes bank
angle, with careful timing of the rates of deceleration and
heading change. Done well, it’s a satisfying maneuver.
The lazy eight is a constant flow of pitch and roll
inputs that place the airplane at specific points over
an imaginary recumbent “figure eight” centered on the
horizon. For an added challenge, it may be done over a
ground line of reference, reaching out to the horizon,
that’s aligned into the prevailing wind aloft, providing an
axis for the maneuver. Graphically simple, the lazy eight
is frustratingly difficult when deliberately flown in a slow,
“lazy” manner. Avoid the temptation to slop through a
couple of knife-edge wing-overs and call it a lazy eight.
While fun, that doesn’t build much skill with an airplane.
Entry to the lazy eight is a simultaneous pull-up and
roll-in, timed to reach maximum pitch attitude at a point
45 degrees from the entry heading, airspeed continually
decreasing through the 45 degrees of heading change.
Bank continues to increase while you lower the nose to
reach the horizon at the 90-degree point, then bank is
decreased as the nose continues below the horizon to
a 135-degree change from entry direction, as the lost
airspeed is regained. Roll-out is continued for the next
45 degrees of turn, while the nose is raised to the hori-
zon, reaching wings-level after 180 degrees of heading
change, with airspeed and altitude exactly as they were
when you entered, crossing the ground-reference axis.
Without hesitation, roll-in and pitch-up are begun in the
opposite directions, clicking precisely through the 45-,
90-, 135- and 180-degree key positions as before. A well-
flown lazy eight is a beautiful sequence of ever-changing
control forces. It should be an unhurried maneuver, flown
without ever pausing in a stable flight attitude.RETURNING TO BASE
To cap off a great practice session, aim for perfection
even in the let-down to the traffic pattern entry. Descent
planning involves a simple exchange of energy, sacrific-
ing stored altitude at a rate targeted to reach level flight
just prior to entering the traffic pattern. GPS makes this
simple, as you can easily determine how many minutes
you’ll need to let down from your altitude above the
pattern while using a constant rate of descent; I use 500
fpm for unpressurized light airplanes, or 300 fpm if pas-
sengers need careful handling.
When the time-to-destination readout approaches
the minutes-required figure, walk the power back and
nudge the nose into descent attitude; allow extra time
for the descent rate to stabilize and, if you want to build
up speed to get home quicker, start down a bit earlier in
anticipation of increased ground speed. Unless you have
an automatic turbocharger wastegate, you’ll need to man-
age the manifold pressure increase during descent, and
you should be ready to slow down if the ride gets rough
at lower altitude. If done correctly, you’ll level off and
coast into the pattern while slowing to an initial arrival
speed, compatible with other planes, without making
further power changes.
If you haven’t flown for a significant amount of time,
begin by taking an instructor with you, or at least invite
an experienced current-in-type pilot to ride along. But
then, put in some solo time. Be hard on yourself, seek-
ing elusive perfection but taking satisfaction in any
improvement you earn. Like with bicycling, the ability
is still there, under layers of rust. All you need is to take
up the challenge and get ready to fly again. PP