Maneuvering flight

Airshow performers understand the risks of maneuvering flight when flying aerobatics and they are careful to limit operations within set safety boundaries. But pilots who don’t recognize the extreme hazard of deliberate, reckless activity such as buzzing a friend’s house are tempting fate and fatality. Considering every flight will enter a brief maneuvering phase in the traffic pattern and during takeoff and landing, how do we navigate maneuvering at those altitudes safely?

Think about angle of attack (AOA)—the angle between the chord line of the wing and the relative wind. When the aircraft exceeds its critical angle of attack, it will stall—for many GA aircraft, that occurs between 16 and 18 degrees, both in nose-up and nose-down flight attitudes, turns, and during pull-ups (vertical turns). A too-high AOA and subsequent stall can easily happen with the nose down and plenty of airspeed. It’s the AOA, not the airspeed, that causes the stall. Of course, the chance of an angle-of-attack accident is very high during an attempt to buzz an object on the ground. If the angle of attack is too steep during the pull-out from the dive, the wing will stall—and at low altitude, the outcome will likely be tragic.

Be aware that distractions can also play a role in maneuvering accidents—for example, flying in the traffic pattern on a busy day, looking for traffic, running the checklist, and configuring the aircraft. Even small distractions can lead to emergencies that if allowed to overwhelm you and cause an accident. Because you’ll be flying at low altitudes, low airspeeds, and high angles of attack in the traffic pattern, consider these safety points:

• If you overshoot final on the base-to-final turn, don’t try to compensate by steepening the bank angle beyond your normal limits and adding backpressure to maintain altitude. The AOA will increase, setting up a hazardous stall scenario, which may not be recoverable at such a low altitude (see “Proficiency: How It Happens,” p. 81). Instead, keep a normal turn going and once you roll out, if the approach is not salvageable, go around.
• Set an altitude below which you’ll stop maneuvering to maintain a stabilized approach—on airspeed, at the right altitude, with an appropriate descent rate, and aligned with the runway. Not stabilized? Go around!
• Complete the before-landing checklist, with the possible exceptions of landing flaps and propeller full forward (if equipped), before turning base. Don’t have time before turning final? You’re not ready to land. Go around.

Other maneuvering flight scenarios include formation flying, aerial work, stalls/spin training, canyon flying, and aerobatics. Just remember, any type of flying performed close to the ground or involving steep turns and aerobatics is considered maneuvering.

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