Four Ways To Turn Around

[Colonel]

Now, you're going to spend 99% of your flight time straight and level, probably on autopilot. Boring as fuck if you ask me, but ....

On occasion, you're going to want to turn around in an airplane. Here are four ways that I do it.

1) Level 180 degree turn. If you're young and full of piss and vinegar and lack imagination, 60/2 or 75/4 and crank it around, constant altitude. It works.



2) Wingover. Combine a climb and a turn, so you are 90 degree of bank at the apogee after 90 degrees of heading change. Descend and turn to exit on reversed heading. Very gentle, very light G, ball in the center all the time. Classy. If you do a lot of them, it's called a lazy eight. Required maneuver on CPL down here, but unsurprisingly they fuck it up.



3) Hammerhead. +4G pull to vertical. Use a little right aileron and right rudder as you slow down. When you stop, at the pivot, full left rudder, reduce power and stick forward as required for gyroscopic precession of the prop. Pull +4G from the vertical downline, exit on reversed heading. I could do that all day. Never gets old.



4) 1/2 cuban eight. +4G to start a loop, but hesitate after 5/8 on the inverted 45 downline. 1/2 roll upright, pull from upright 45 downline to exit reversed heading. Feel free to spiral the 1/2 roll to keep the G light and positive for the entire maneuver.



The above four are child's play. Every pilot should know how to turn around. If you care, there is a really fun version of #4:

5) 1/2 reverse outside cuban eight. From the surface and cruise speed, pull up to 45 upline. Wait for your gate. Push forward on the stick to fly the remainder of an outside loop, exiting inverted at the surface at cruise speed. It's a gas! I have done this hundreds of time on wing in formation. Visuals are a hoot. There is nothing like negative G formation aerobatics at the surface.

[Colonel]

For completeness' sake I should mention

6) reverse inside 1/2 cuban eight

Most people think that this is of greater difficulty than #4 above, but substantially less than #5.

The contest people think this (reverse inside 1/2 cuban eight) is so dangerous, it should never be attempted from the surface (snort).

And I gotta admit, the USAF Thunderbirds put on a quite a show in Idaho trying to do this in 2003:



I routinely do solo reverse inside 1/2 cuban eight from the surface all the time. They are perfectly safe if you respect the top gate,
which as I have mentioned before, are parameters of airspeed and height that keep you alive in that airplane at that airport on
that day. Skip Stewart thinks exactly the same.

No one gives a flying fuck about accident causes - they want to relive them, I guess - but that F-16 used 1500 feet for his top gate
instead of the required 2500 feet.

Now, why would he do that? The reason is a tiny detail in the Kollsman window of your sensitive altimeter. It can only be
adjusted between 28 and 31 inches of Mercury.

See, aerobatic pilots always "zero" their altimeters for ground level at the airport. We care where the ground is. We do not
give a shit about some distant sea with pirates and sailing ships on it, ok?

But this airport in Idaho had a 3,000 foot elevation, so there is NO WAY you could zero your altimeter. See above.

So, that F-16 pilot decided he would do some mental arithmetic on his top gate. And I'm sure he's a bright guy and a good
stick, and we can see how that worked out. Another meta-lesson on doing mental arithmetic in the cockpit. DON'T.

Pro Tips for the reverse 1/2 cu-8: most people don't hold the 45 inverted upline after the 1/2 roll - they let it sag down to a
30 or so, so less altitude is gained. And, most people don't like being upside down, so they hurry the pull before they have
met their top gate, which means they're going to crash because they didn't make their altitude (required for radius) and they
have too much speed, which means they're doing to exceed design G/Vne limits in their unplanned split-S.

Note that there is nothing magical about the 45 lines. I prefer to make them steeper - 60 is nice - which looks better and
keeps your X-axis tighter esp on hot days.

Anyways. The reverse 1/2 cu-8 is a great way to turn around, if you're not a contest or T-bird pilot, I guess.



Amazingly, that guy promoted, eventually to Colonel.

Be nice. Too easy.

[Squaretail]

Is this all because you're feeling sensitive about not being an ambi-turner?

[Colonel]

Best instructor dig ever!

“That’s what you got from that?”

This is just what goes through my brain dude, while I’m waiting for stuff to compile.

[Squaretail]

“You have a lot of talents kid, hangin’ a Louie ain’t one of them!”

Not to be insolent, but didn’t you miss the basic split-s and Immelman? You can also just inelegantly skid the airplane around too, which in rare instances has application.

This is just what goes through my brain dude, while I’m waiting for stuff to compile.

That’s probably better than mine which is a steady random stream of movie quotes, song lyrics and logging poetry. Which once one realizes that, it explains ninety percent of my behaviour.

[Colonel]

Chandelle, Immelman, Split-S etc all involve a substantial change of altitude are are thusly out of scope for my 180 turn discussion which requires exiting at same altitude but with 180 heading change.

Re: flat turn. You got me there. I’d rather go to the dentist than do that, though.