Out-of-Control Flight
Out-of-Control Syllabus Maneuvers
now rolling opposite the direction of the applied controls, you may encounter some increase in roll rate as
you neutralize the controls. Perform your OCF procedures and recover as in the other departures.
ACM 1 VS 0
On your OCF flight, if you have some gas left over after completing the required maneuvers, you should
use this time to become familiar with the T-45 flight characteristics. To prepare you for ACM, here are
some suggested maneuvers to practice.
TURNS
Turn performance is a key factor in air combat. Modern fighters are evaluated on their turn performance
both in turn rate (degrees per second) and turn radius. Aircraft that can sustain high turn rates and small
turn radii without sacrificing energy will have the advantage over inferior opponents. You can discover the
turn capabilities of the T-45 by performing several turns:
Engaging turn—Executed at MRT, 14 units AOA, and slightly nose-low. The engaging turn allows the
pilot to maintain his energy while maneuvering for an engagement. You can practice your engaging turns
at 300 KIAS and 14 units, which will generate a turn rate of approximately
7 degrees per second (50 seconds for a 360-degree turn).
Hard turn—Executed at MRT and 17 units AOA. Practice your hard turns at 300 KIAS and 17 units. This
is a good trade-off between turn rate and turn radius. Try to fly this turn without reference to your instru-
ments, in other words, fly it by “feeling” for that nibble of buffet. You will have to trade some altitude to
maintain your airspeed at 300 KIAS. Typical hard turns will generate a turn rate of approximately 10
degrees per second (36 seconds for a 360-degree turn).
Break turn—Executed at MRT or IDLE (to minimize heat signature) and 19-21 units AOA. Break turns
give you the maximum instantaneous turn rate, but will result in rapid energy bleedoff. You can practice
break turns at any airspeed and altitude. If you try to perform a maximum performance turn for 360
degrees, you can generate a turn rate up to 11 degrees per second (approximately 33 seconds for a 360-
degree turn), but you may lose 5,000 ft or more altitude to maintain 300 KIAS. To achieve your best turn
rate, you should smoothly track the nose through the turn, avoid “pitch-bucking” the aircraft.
VERTICAL MANEUVERING
You can practice vertical maneuvering to become comfortable with using nose-high and nose-low turns in
ACM. You may (at IP’s discretion) perform 300-KIAS loops and split-S maneuvers to investigate the
altitude loss in these maneuvers. Particularly note the altitude needed to recover from split-S and other
nose-low maneuvers.
ONE-CIRCLE FIGHT
You may practice flying slow speed high AOA flight similar to a horizontal scissors. Smoothly maintaining
20-22 units AOA will allow you to keep the nose from stalling to sustain slow-speed flight. You must be
smooth and keep the jet out of pitch-buck or you will stall the wings, drop the nose, and increase airspeed.
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