Male (aerobatics)

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Aresti symbol of the male aerobatic figure

The male (English tail slide ) is a competition aerobatic figure from the Aresti catalog . The turning (see below) can be done forwards or backwards, whereby the direction specified in the program must be observed, otherwise the figure is invalid. In the German-speaking world, the unofficial designation "Männchen" (turn to the front) and "Weibchen" (turn to the back) has become established for the two versions. In English, the two variants “canopy up” and “canopy down”, or in the USA often “wheels up” and “wheels down” are called tail slide.

To initiate the figure, pull the plane vertically upwards from straight flight with the help of the elevator. In a vertical position, the aircraft slows down until it comes to a standstill and then falls back down again. However, this attitude is unstable, so that sooner or later the aircraft will turn over, i.e. H. will turn 180 ° around the transverse axis, so that it flies normally forwards downwards again, the direction of this turning being determined with the elevator. This vertical dive is now diverted back to horizontal flight.

The difficulty of the figure is to let the airplane turn in a controlled manner in the given direction, but without cheating beforehand and without specifying the direction already in the upward movement. In competition, however, the upward line is deliberately not flown exactly vertically in order to ensure the reversal in the right direction, because the resulting point deduction is always less bad than a completely invalid figure. (Turning in the wrong direction is considered a different figure and consequently results in a "hard zero" in the evaluation, which can also happen to experts without this cheating, because the effect of the elevator is rather small in this situation.)

Absolutely perfect vertical sliding backwards is also not recommended for safety reasons: The more perfect the vertical, the longer the aircraft will slide backwards before it turns over. If, however, the aircraft picks up too much speed before turning, the forces of the airstream on the rudders can become so great that the pilot's strength is no longer sufficient to hold the rudders. These are then slammed against the stops by the airstream with great force, which can result in very serious damage to the aircraft or even total rudder failure. This can also happen with the elevator, although this is held against a stop in the male if the aircraft turns in the wrong direction at high speed. This is the main danger posed by this figure and the reason why it is expressly forbidden on many aircraft that are actually approved for aerobatics.

The male can be initiated from normal horizontal flight as well as from inverted flight and can also be directed back into both flight positions.

literature

  • Eric Müller, Arnette Carson: Flight unlimited '95 . Penrose Press, 1994, ISBN 0-620-18774-3 .

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