#ADVANCED AIR COMBAT MANEUVERS MANUAL#
#ADVANCED AIR COMBAT MANEUVERS FULL#

Ensure you have plenty of obstruction-free airspace and several emergency landing locations available. Choose an area to perform the maneuver.

#ADVANCED AIR COMBAT MANEUVERS MANUAL#

Before attempting a chandelle in real life, review your aircraft manual to determine appropriate airframe-specific speeds, inputs, and angles for this maneuver. The steps listed below walk you through the high-level inputs and outcomes of a commercial pilot level chandelle maneuver. Private, recreational, and sport pilots can also benefit from learning the chandelle maneuver as it allows you to perform a smooth course reversal while conserving energy and gaining altitude. Keeping the aircraft just above stall speed during the turn requires pilots to demonstrate keen knowledge of their aircraft’s performance capabilities and to showcase their precision handling skills. In fact, successful completion of a chandelle maneuver is part of the FAA’s airman certification standards for commercial pilots.

What is the Purpose of the Chandelle Maneuver?Īlthough most aviators are not out dodging enemy fire, the chandelle maneuver continues to be relevant in civil aviation.

#ADVANCED AIR COMBAT MANEUVERS FULL#

The chandelle maneuver got its name from the French word for “candle.” The full French name of the original maneuver was “monter en chandelle” which roughly means “to climb vertically.” Perhaps the WWI French pilots thought the combination of vertical climb and twisting turn in this maneuver resembled the shape of a tall, spiral taper candle. As seen on History Channel, the rapid execution of a chandelle helps pilots avoid a successful target lock from the tailing plane while putting them into a more offensive higher altitude position from which they can launch their own attack. In a military setting, today’s pilots perform a chandelle to quickly double back on an enemy aircraft. The chandelle maneuver was also utilized by Japanese Zero pilots from the Tainan Air Group in New Guinea during World War II. They used it as both an offensive and defensive aerial combat tactic, dropping bombs on enemy ground troops while avoiding return fire. It was developed and implemented by French pilots in World War I. The chandelle precision aircraft maneuver was the first ever aerial combat maneuver. In the Airplane Flying Handbook, the FAA defines the commercial pilot standard for the chandelle as “a climbing turn beginning from straight and level flight, and ending at the completion of 180 degrees of turn in a wings-level, nose-high attitude at minimum controllable airspeed.” Chandelle Maneuver History What is a Chandelle Maneuver?Ĭhandelles are maximum performance maneuvers. That’s right-we’re talking about the chandelle. One of our favorite skill-building maneuvers is a smooth, graceful, seemingly effortless climbing turn that our fellow pilots have been performing for over one hundred years. You may not be an aerobatics pilot performing a Cuban Eight for a crowd of airshow spectators, but there are other less complex aerial maneuvers that we all can enjoy learning.

Advanced air combat maneuvers