Aerobatics
Familiarization
AEROBATICS
You perform aerobatics to learn the standard aerobatic maneuvers while improving your basic air-work,
increasing your confidence, and extending mastery over a larger portion of the maneuvering envelope. As
aerobatic flight improves your coordination, your timing, and your ability to remain oriented, it also furthers
your sense of feel for the T-45.
Aerobatic flight also familiarizes you with the unusual attitudes that are possible in the aircraft. By
employing the proper recovery methods, your confidence in both the aircraft and in your abilities will
increase. To fly the aircraft through the various aerobatic patterns, you must apply varying control
pressures in order to compensate for the effects of gravity and constantly changing attitudes and
airspeeds. Aerobatic training is essential to your development as a tactical Naval Aviator.
You must know, understand, and observe all restrictions pertaining to aerobatics and be thoroughly familiar
with the capabilities and limitations of the T-45 aircraft (refer to NATOPS, chapter 4).
Aerobatic maneuvers must be initiated from an altitude that will enable you to complete the maneuver and
return to straight and level flight without descending below 10,000 ft AGL. You will use visual cues outside
the cockpit as your primary aerobatic references during the FAM stage. All bank angles, pitch attitudes,
and power settings are considered to be approximate. You will also refer to the ADI during each maneu-
ver, but only as a backup to your primary visual references.
GENERAL AEROBATIC PROCEDURES
Upon entry into a maneuver:
*
Note aircraft airspeed, altitude, and heading parameters
*
Attempt to exit the maneuver with similar parameters
*
Use inside/outside scan technique
*
Zero G’s for greater than 30 seconds is prohibited
BASIC MANEUVERS
MINIMUM RADIUS TURN
A minimum radius turn is a tight, high AOA (17 units), constant airspeed turn. In FAM the minimum radius
turn consists of two 360-degree turns in opposite directions. You practice the minimum radius turn maneu-
ver to develop your skills in precise control of the aircraft through steep AOB and high g forces (Figure 8).
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