Practical purposes of comm maneuvers?

[VVJM265]

Well I don't have one.....(PTS)

Here are all of them:

http://www.faa.gov/education_research/testing/airmen/test_standards/pilot/

 

[BoilerUP]

"...to exercise mastery of the airplane as a commercial pilot." Or such was the crap I was told.

That being said, they aren't difficult to do, and nobody should bust a ride because of them. You can have alot of fun doing chandelles or "extremely lazy 8s" if you get a bit spirited with the bank and rate of roll.

 

[RichardRambone]

The only explanation Ive ever got was to prove your ability to control the plane in those offbeat manuevers. Who cares.

 

[avbug]

With the exception of eights, I've regularly used most of the maneuvers as part of my paid flying for many years...they have had extensive practical applications.

For you as the budding commercial pilot, however, they are exercises and demonstrations of basic flying skills. The Chandelle, for example, isn't a maneuver designed to teach you to escape a box canyon. If you fly into a box canyon without an out, you probably deserve to die. And there are far more important tactics to get out than a chandelle.

It's a maneuver that teaches you to coordinate airspeed with changing pitch and bank angles, nothing more. It's often taught as horsing the nose up and running out of airspeed when you've turned a hundred eighty degrees, but that's not it at all. Rolling into the turn smoothly and accurately such that you continuously increase your bank for half of the maneuver, and continuously decrease it for the other half requires coordination. More so considering the changing control forces, and decreasing airspeed. Properly done, your pitch increases continuously from the start of the maneuver until half way through, and then holds constant. It must achieve a pitch attitude that allows for the airspeed to bleed to minimum controllable at the same tiem you arrive at the conclusion of the maneuver, just as the wings roll level, just as you reach one hundred eighty degrees from the start.

Likewise a Lazy eight has numerous applications, but more importantly, teaches you and requires you to demonstrate coordination. It's a simple maneuver, but a good training maneuver, and I've been required to demonstrate it on checkrides ranging from small single engine airplanes to large four engine airplanes. Often in the field I use a combination of a lazy eight, turns on or about points, and a chandelle in typical maneuvering close to the surface, all with eyes outside the cockpit. Having an understanding and feel of the airplane is important, and the classroom maneuvers and concepts find a very real application in day to day flying for some jobs.

Your requirement to learn and demonstrate them isn't designed to prepare you for those jobs, however...it's intrinsic to your basic flight training and your bag of elementary skills.

Really training out to include basic aerobatics too, but sadly it does not.

 

[nosehair]

before working on my commercial, about the only time I used the pedals is when taxiing.

...there is the precise and only reason for these maneuvers. Both the chandelle and lazy 8 require good coordination - excellent control of constantly changing rudder, elevator, and aileron pressures to fly the airplane in a pre-ordained manner - "to have mastery over the airplane".


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[Horizon]

I believe the chandelle was originally intended as an escape maneuver if you find yourself in a boxed canyon.

For the boxed canyon, the ultimate escape maneuver is the hammer-head stall...

 

[Dumbluck]

I perfer a split-S or a Immelman, I forget which goes up?

 

[nosehair]

For the boxed canyon, the ultimate escape maneuver is the hammer-head stall...

...and for instrument let-downs, the spin
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[pilotmiketx]

You know that's probably a BIG reason for it - before working on my commercial, about the only time I used the pedals is when taxiing.

You had a crappy instructor.

And GKrangers, if you don't have a PTS, you're starting off on the wrong foot. That should be the first thing you read before whatever stupid Jeppesen/ASA/King maneuvers manuals your instructor makes you use.

And the Chandelle was originally used in WWI to escape enemy ground fire.

As far as box canyons go, I prefer the 1/2 turn spin. Certainly easier than an immelman or hammerhead.

 

[BLing]

The commercial maneuvers help to perfect your flying skills. Yes, I admit that they are stupid, but they really do make you gain a better feel for the airplane.