Flying Smart : Aviation Speak

The steep turn is a performance maneuver that a private pilot hopeful must demonstrate to a pilot examiner's satisfaction. Moving up the aviation ladder to the commercial and flight instructor certificates means you have to master advanced performance maneuvers. The chandelle and the lazy eight are two such exercises. The parameters for each are described in the Commercial Pilot Practical Test Standards, which you can find on AOPA Online.

The chandelle is a 180-degree climbing turn flown at maximum continuous power that concludes with the airplane about five knots above its stall speed. Flight instructors say that learning to fly a chandelle improves rudder coordination and teaches the pilot to think ahead and look ahead. An added benefit is that it forces you to take your eyes off the instrument panel, so you learn to feel if the airplane is coordinated without fixating on the turn coordinator.

The lazy eight is a series of climbs and descents during left and right 180-degree turns at constant power. "The word 'lazy' implies two things: slow attitude changes and minimum control inputs that the pilot applies only when aerodynamic forces won't do the job," says AOPA Flight Training columnist Ralph Butcher, who teaches these maneuvers to commercial and CFI candidates. And the eight? That's what the airplane's nose will inscribe as you fly the maneuver, he says: a figure eight lying on its side across one-half of the horizon.

Their names may evoke square-dance imagery, but if you can do them proficiently, you will show the examiner that you understand how to use aerodynamic forces to control the airplane.

You don't have to be a commercial pilot or CFI to learn how to fly chandelles or lazy eights, and they are sure to improve your flying skills. Ask your CFI to demonstrate one, and try it yourself with him or her in the right seat.