Chandelle

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Chandelle

The Chandelle (French for "candle") is an aerobatic figure. The figure is not included in the Aresti catalog, so it is not a competitive figure . Therefore it is nowhere defined what the "correct" design should look like, and there are correspondingly divergent views on this. The maneuvers listed below are all more or less often referred to as “Chandelle”, but they also have their own names with which they can be better defined.

Climbing turn

Illustration of a climbing turn from the Airplane Flying Handbook of FAA

In the German-speaking area, a chandelle is usually understood to mean a reversal curve with a simultaneous gain in altitude (English climbing turn). The aim is to fly the curve with a constant bank angle (or, depending on the interpretation, with a constant radius) and plan the gain in altitude so that the airspeed at the end of the curve is as close as possible to the minimum speed. The success of the character depends on predictive energy management. If the airplane is very strongly motorized, this figure is rather pointless, since the airplane hardly loses speed during the climb. If, on the other hand, the aircraft is weakly motorized or even a glider, the chandelle is a valuable exercise to develop a feeling for energy management.

Elevated travel curve

The raised speed curve is a standard procedure in glider flight for the transition from fast straight flight to slow, stationary circular flight in thermal updraft . As soon as the aircraft has flown into the updraft area of ​​the thermal bubble, a sharp right or left turn is flown and the flight is "pulled out" again using the elevator and converted in height. This has the advantage that you don't lose as much altitude before reaching the updraft area as when you slowly fly into the thermal. The disadvantage of this maneuver is that you have to know exactly where the thermal is, otherwise you will lose a lot of altitude instead of reducing it.

In addition, it must be ensured that there are no other gliders in the updraft that could be hindered by this maneuver. There is a risk of collision. For these reasons, the raised travel curve is no longer listed in the training exercises and the exercises in a practical SPL exam.

This figure is also trained when learning aerobatics so that you get a better feel for the energy management of an aircraft. Most of the time, the raised travel curve is then designed as a 180 ° course change, which requires a high degree of skill in glider aerobatics. In addition, comparatively high g-forces occur for the aerobatic newcomer , which gives a good picture of how strong centrifugal forces affect the body.

The difficulty of the raised travel curve is the initiation of the curve when pushing down: Since the aircraft needs little lift when pushing, the negative turning moment is smaller than usual, so that the rudder should be deflected less than usual.

Wing over

The "wing over" is also called a chandelle in some places. With this type of figure, you gain speed first, pull your nose up 45 ° and then initiate a 180 ° curve. When exiting the curve, the nose points 45 ° downwards again, so that at the end the aircraft is steered back into straight flight by simply pulling the elevator.

The "wing over" feels like tipping over the wing into a descent. In fact, however, it is important that the curve is flown out completely and the aircraft does not "tip" into the downward movement by itself (which many aircraft types would acknowledge with a spin ). This maneuver is the basis of the quarter-leaf clover , which is partly based on the "wing over".

Quarter leaf clover

The quarter-leaf clover consists of the looping and a "wing over" combined with it. This figure is initiated by flying a 1/4 loop. While the elevator remains pulled, pressing the aileron and rudder simultaneously initiates a roll movement. At the end of the figure, the aircraft has changed course by 90 ° and the figure is ended by the neutral position of elevator, aileron and rudder in the subsequent straight flight.

The “quarter-leaf clover” is the basis of the “Lazy Eight”, which is partly based on this figure.

Full leaf clover

The full shamrock is simply made up of four quarter-leaf clovers flown one after the other. The “trick” with this figure is to fly four exactly the same quarter-leaf clover one after the other. At the end of the figure, the flight must be continued from the same point at which you started the figure. This maneuver is also not a competitive figure and is used more for training purposes, as you need a considerable amount of coordination to fly this figure properly.

Lazy eight

This figure is a combination of the “quarter-leaf clover” and the wing over. First the quarter-leaf clover is flown and then combined with a wing over. This figure looks like the infinity symbol ( ), which is also called "Lazy Eight" in English-speaking countries.

literature

  • Dale Crane (Ed.): Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms. 3rd edition. Aviation Supplies & Academics, Newcastle WA 1997, ISBN 1-56027-287-2 , p. 102.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ LBA: Report of the examiner on the practical test SPL, Form 950_SPL