AOPA Pilot Magazine - September 2020 - 93

P&E 

TECHNIQUE

It's complicated
Performing a chandelle smoothly and effortlessly
B Y C AT H E R I N E C AVAG N A R O

PERFECTING THE CHANDELLE shows a mastery of the aircraft, and the maneuver is among

those in the Commercial Pilot Airman Certification Standards.

STEVE KARP

T H E A I R P L A N E F LY I N G H A N D B O O K

describes the chandelle as a maximum
performance climbing turn. Many commercial pilot practical exam candidates
present it as an antidote for the box canyon
turn scenario in which a tight turn must be
executed in order to reverse course with
a minimum turn radius to safely exit the
canyon. Neither one of these is true.
A chandelle is a climbing turn, performed in the clean configuration, with
a 180-degree change in course. It begins
near the maneuvering speed of the aircraft and finishes close to its stalling
speed. The first half of the chandelle
features a constant bank attitude and
increasing pitch attitude. During the
second half of the maneuver, the pitch
attitude stays constant and the bank continuously decreases to a level attitude.
The procedure for a chandelle goes
something like this: Find a long, straight

road and fly directly across and beyond
it for half a mile or so. At maneuvering
speed, smartly yet smoothly roll into a
30-degree bank, neutralize the ailerons
and pull back on the yoke. As the nose
of the aircraft passes through the horizon, add climb power and continue the
pull until the aircraft is parallel to the
road. In the second half of the maneuver,
the bank is continually relaxed until the
wings are level and the aircraft is headed
directly at the road once more. During this
phase, maintaining a constant pitch angle
necessitates pulling back on the yoke due
to decreasing airspeed and control effectiveness. Hold the aircraft near a stall for
a few seconds before lowering the nose for
the recovery. It may take a few attempts
to find the correct rate of pull-up during
the first half so that the aircraft nears a
stall just as the wings are once again level
at the end.

There is a lot going on in this maneuver. As the aircraft slows through
various airspeeds, the pilot must continually adjust for the overbanking tendencies.
Interestingly, if a pilot pulls back on the
yoke, being careful not to introduce roll,
the bank angle with respect to the horizon
will naturally increase beyond 30 degrees.
(If that seems suspicious, try the maneuver
using a model airplane and you'll witness
the phenomenon.) When my airplane is
parallel to the road, the bank angle is typically 45 degrees. The Airplane Flying
Handbook says the bank should stay at 30
degrees during the first half of the maneuver, and performing the chandelle this way

The chandelle is a
beautiful maneuver
but, by any obvious
metric-small turn
radius or gain in
altitude-it is not
a maximum
performance
maneuver.
requires actually relaxing some bank-as
well as a gentler initial pull on the yoke-
so that the stall is not encountered too
soon. With continually increasing angle of
attack, the left turning tendencies become
pronounced and compensating for them
will be very different in a chandelle to the
left compared with one to the right.
Any authoritative use of controls
should be effected at or below the maneuvering speed of the aircraft, and you
probably don't want to use the value placarded on your panel as it likely is based on
maximum gross weight-and maneuvering
speed decreases with weight. For example,
the maximum gross weight maneuvering
speed for my Beechcraft Bonanza is 132
KCAS but when I'm flying the airplane by
myself with reduced fuel, it drops to 114
KCAS. A good rule of thumb says that for
every 2-percent drop in weight, maneuvering speed decreases by 1 percent.
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AOPA Pilot Magazine - September 2020

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