Chandelles (ASEL, ASES)

For ASEL or ASES the evaluator must select Task C or D from Area IX (FAA-S-ACS-25, Area IX note) — chandelles or lazy eights. You don't get to choose, so prepare both to teaching depth. The Task is not applicable to AMEL or AMES.

Prepare it as instruction: the ACS wants you to demonstrate instructional knowledge by describing and explaining the aerodynamics, to explain and teach risk management, and to demonstrate and simultaneously explain the maneuver itself (FAA-S-ACS-25, Task IX.C). A chandelle flown beautifully in silence earns nothing.

A maximum performance 180° climbing turn that begins from approximately straight-and-level flight and concludes with the airplane in a wings-level, nose-high attitude just above stall speed (AFH 10-4).

Then correct the misconception before it forms — because students arrive believing the maneuver is an altitude contest. The goal is to gain the most altitude possible for a given bank angle and power setting; however, the standard used to judge the maneuver is not the amount of altitude gained, but rather the pilot's proficiency at maximizing climb performance for the power and bank selected, as well as the skill demonstrated (AFH 10-4). Say that sentence on the ground and you prevent a lesson's worth of over-pitching.

Give the student the two failure modes at the same time, because they're symmetric and easy to remember: pitch set too low and the airspeed never decreases to just above stall speed; pitch set too high and the airplane may aerodynamically stall prior to completion (AFH 10-4). And on the rollout: if the rollout rate is too rapid or too sluggish, the airplane either exceeds the 180° turn or does not complete the turn as the wings come level (AFH 10-4).

• Clear the area (AI.IX.C.S1)
• Select an altitude allowing the maneuver no lower than 1,500 feet AGL (AI.IX.C.S2)
• Appropriate entry configuration, power, and airspeed (AI.IX.C.S3)
• Bank at approximately 30° (AI.IX.C.S4)
• Simultaneously apply power and pitch for a smooth, coordinated climbing turn to the 90° point with constant bank and continuously decreasing airspeed (AI.IX.C.S5)
• Constant rate rollout from 90° to 180°, maintaining power and a constant pitch attitude (AI.IX.C.S6)
• Rollout complete at the 180° point ±10°, just above stall airspeed, maintained momentarily while avoiding a stall (AI.IX.C.S7)
• Resume straight-and-level with minimum loss of altitude (AI.IX.C.S8)
• Analyze and correct common errors (AI.IX.C.S9)

The heading tolerance at the 180° point is the only ± band in the Task. Everything else is judged qualitatively — which is exactly why you must be able to describe what right looks like.

Flaps and landing gear (if retractable) in the UP position before starting (AFH 10-5). Enter from straight-and-level flight or a shallow dive, at an airspeed recommended by the manufacturer — in many cases the airplane's design maneuvering speed (VA) or operating maneuvering speed (VO) (AFH 10-5).

That's knowledge element K3, appropriate airplane configuration for maximum performance climb — so be ready to say why: gear and flaps up removes parasite drag you'd otherwise spend energy dragging uphill, and the maneuver is an energy conversion where every unit of drag is altitude you don't get.

This is the most reliably asked aerodynamics question in the Task. As airspeed decreases, left-turning tendencies such as P-factor have greater effect, so progressively increase right rudder to stay coordinated (AFH 10-5).

The asymmetry students find surprising: at the slowest airspeed near completion, right rudder pressure is significant, especially when rolling out of a LEFT chandelle, because the left adverse yaw produced by the rollout adds to the left-turning tendencies (AFH 10-5). Rolling out of a right chandelle, the yawing moment is to the right, which partially cancels the left-turning tendency — so depending on the airplane you need very little left rudder, or merely a reduction in right rudder (AFH 10-5).

Teach it as a feel, not a number: judge coordination by the slip/skid sensation, a glance at the ball, and control pressure (AFH 10-5).

Overbanking tendency — it strengthens as the airspeed decreases (AFH 10-5). During the first 90° the bank is fixed at approximately 30°, so proper use of aileron — progressively more top aileron as the airplane slows — is what keeps it there until the rollout begins (AFH 10-5).

Name it in flight: "bank's increasing — that's overbanking, add top aileron, not rudder." The rudder correction is the dangerous one, because a skidding, nose-high, decelerating turn is a spin entry. Allowing the bank to increase after initial establishment is a listed common error (AFH 10-6).

Two effects fight each other, and the losing one wins if the student does nothing:

• As the bank decreases, the vertical component of lift increases, which would tend to raise the nose.
• But the airspeed is still decaying, so the elevator becomes less effective.

The AFH's resolution: a slight increase of elevator back pressure is required to keep the pitch attitude from decreasing (AFH 10-5). Teach the student to hold the attitude visually against the horizon, not the control position. Allowing the pitch attitude to increase as the bank rolls out is the mirror error, and it's also on the list (AFH 10-6).

At 180° of turn the airplane is wings level to the horizon, airspeed just above power-on stall speed, in a nose-high attitude held momentarily (AFH 10-5; AI.IX.C.S7). Once the airplane is in controlled flight, reduce the pitch attitude and return to straight-and-level cruise (AFH 10-5), with minimum loss of altitude (AI.IX.C.S8).

"Momentarily" is a real requirement, not a formality — pitching straight over the top into a nose-down recovery means the student never actually arrived at the target energy state. Brief it explicitly, because students anticipate the recovery and start it early.

The AFH lists 14 — know the count, because an evaluator can ask you to name them all (AFH 10-6):

1. Initial bank too shallow → results in a stall
2. Initial bank too steep → failure to gain maximum performance
3. Allowing the bank to increase after initial establishment
4. Not starting the recovery at the 90° point
5. Allowing the pitch to increase as the bank is rolled out during the second 90°
6. Leveling the wings prior to the 180° point
7. Pitch attitude low on recovery, resulting in airspeed well above stall
8. Execution of a steep turn instead of a climbing maneuver
9. Stalling at any point during the maneuver
10. Application of flight control pressures is not smooth
11. Poor flight control coordination
12. Not clearing the area
13. Not scanning for traffic during the maneuver
14. Performing by reference to the flight instruments rather than visual references

Errors 1 and 2 are the diagnostic pair. If the airplane keeps stalling early, look at the bank before you look at the pitch. Errors 10 and 11 are the ones applicants forget — and they're the ones you'll actually be naming out loud all day, because a chandelle flown with jerky pressures or a trailing foot looks wrong long before it busts a tolerance.

Build it simple to complex, which the AIH names as the right strategy when teaching more than one skill at a time — starting with the simplest skill builds confidence and reduces frustration (AIH 9-7). A workable ladder:

1. A climbing turn at constant bank — nothing else. The student flies it.
2. Add the increasing pitch to the first 90°, level off, stop.
3. Add the constant-rate rollout for the second 90°.
4. Whole maneuver.

Also use known to unknown (AIH 9-7): the student already flies climbing turns and steep turns; the chandelle is those two, joined, with an energy budget. Then draw the reference geometry on the whiteboard before the airplane — entry heading, 90° point, 180° point — so the numbers you call out in flight already mean something.

The ACS requires you to demonstrate and simultaneously explain (FAA-S-ACS-25, Task IX.C), and the AIH tells you to explain required power settings, aircraft attitudes, and any other pertinent factors while demonstrating (AIH 9-7). Speak the transitions before they happen:

• "Cleared. Flaps up, gear up, entry speed set — VA or the manufacturer's number (AFH 10-5)."
• "Rolling to 30°. Power coming in, and now the pitch starts up — it's going to keep going up until the 90° point."
• "Watch my right foot. As we slow, P-factor grows, so this pressure keeps increasing (AFH 10-5)."
• "Bank wants to steepen as we slow — I'm holding top aileron (AFH 10-5)."
• "90° point. Maximum pitch. Now the pitch stops moving and I start a slow, constant-rate rollout (AFH 10-4)."
• "135°: I should be near 15° of bank, pitch unchanged, airspeed still bleeding."
• "180°: wings level, just above stall, holding it momentarily (AI.IX.C.S7)."

Then the AIH's rule for the real world: if the demonstration doesn't conform to the explanation, acknowledge and explain the deviation immediately (AIH 9-5).

Use the AIH's distinction: a slip is an error of action — they planned the right thing and did something else; a mistake is an error of thought — they planned the wrong thing and executed it successfully, often from a gap or misconception in understanding (AIH 3-33).

• Student rolls out too fast because their hands got ahead of them → slip. Fix with practice and a verbal checkpoint at 135°. Slips often simply reveal the need for more practice (AIH 3-34).
• Student rolls out fast because they believe the airplane must be wings-level before it slows down → mistake. Practice will make it worse. Go back to the two phases on the ground (AFH 10-4).

The AIH's diagnostic tool is the third step of telling-and-doing, student tells — student does: because the thinking is verbal, "it is easy to determine whether an error is induced by a misconception or by a simple lack of motor skills" (AIH 9-8).

A one-way energy conversion. You enter with a large store of kinetic energy near VA and, over 180° of turn, convert nearly all of the excess into potential energy while the engine adds what it can, arriving at the bottom of the airspeed range with the wings level. That's why the ACS lists energy management as a risk element (AI.IX.C.R6).

Both ends are bracketed by the sources:

• Upper bound on entry speed — the pull-up loads the wing, and at or below VA/VO the airplane stalls before exceeding the design load limit (AFH 10-2).
• Lower bound — the maneuver must end just above stall speed after 180° of climbing turn (AFH 10-4). Enter too slow and there's nothing left to convert.

The AFH permits entry from straight-and-level or a shallow dive at the manufacturer's speed for exactly this reason (AFH 10-5).

Because stall speed is not a fixed number — it moves with load factor, and the chandelle spends its entire first 90° both banked and loaded.

The rule, stated the way you want the student to repeat it: stalling speed increases at the square root of the load factor (AFH 10-2). The AFH's own numbers make it concrete — an airplane that stalls at 50 knots in level flight will stall at 60 knots in a 45° steep turn while maintaining altitude, and at 70 knots if the bank is increased to 60° (AFH 10-2). Nothing about the wing changed; only the load did.

Tie it to the maneuver, because that's what makes it instructional rather than trivia:

• A chandelle is flown at approximately 30° of bank (AI.IX.C.S4) with airspeed continuously decreasing toward "just above stall" (AFH 10-4). The target the student is flying toward is a moving target — the accelerated stall speed at 30° of bank and whatever G the pull is producing, not the placarded number.
• Pitch set too high and the airplane may aerodynamically stall prior to completion (AFH 10-4). That is an accelerated stall, and it is the reason "initial bank too shallow" also produces a stall (AFH 10-6) — a shallow bank stretches the turn, so the airspeed runs out before the heading arrives.
• Any abrupt pull, or the bank creeping past 30° from overbanking, raises the load factor and the stall speed together while the airspeed is already decaying toward it. Two curves closing on each other.

The protection is the entry speed: at or below VA or VO the airplane stalls before exceeding the design load limit (AFH 10-2) — the wing gives up before the structure does. Say that plainly, because students hear "maneuvering speed" as a structural limit and miss that it is the aerodynamic guarantee underneath it.

Teaching move: demonstrate the accelerated stall in a level 45° turn before the first chandelle. A student who has felt the buffet arrive 10 knots early stops treating the book stall speed as the floor.

Bank angle is the knob that splits the energy between turning and climbing.

• Steeper — a higher rate of turn at a given airspeed means you complete the 180° sooner, with less time to convert speed into altitude and more of the lift vector pointed sideways. The AFH names the result: "initial bank too steep resulting in failure to gain maximum performance" (AFH 10-6).
• Shallower — the turn takes so long that the airplane runs out of airspeed before the heading arrives. The AFH names that one too: "initial bank too shallow resulting in a stall" (AFH 10-6).

Thirty degrees is where the standard settles (AI.IX.C.S4). Be able to explain both failure directions, because "because the ACS says 30" is not instructional knowledge.

Because load factor is energy spent turning rather than climbing. Per PHAK, the smoothest pull-up possible, with a moderate load factor, delivers the greatest gain in altitude in a chandelle — and a chandelle or lazy eight whose pull-up produces a load factor greater than 2 Gs will not gain as much altitude, and in a low-powered airplane may result in a net loss (PHAK 5-36).

This is a genuinely useful thing to say to a student who is muscling the airplane, because it reframes restraint as performance rather than timidity.

The ACS requires you to explain and teach these (FAA-S-ACS-25, Task IX.C):

• Division of attention (R1) — everything is moving at once. Assign each item a place: outside continuously for pitch and bank against the horizon; one deliberate check at the 90° point (bank still 30°, pitch at maximum, airspeed decreasing); heading through the second 90° so the rollout rate stays constant. Performing by reference to the instruments is a listed error (AFH 10-6).
• Collision hazards (R2) — two 90° clearing turns, left, right, above, and below (AFH 7-2), then keep scanning; failure to scan for traffic during the maneuver is a listed error (AFH 10-6). You finish 180° from where you started, climbing, so you're entering airspace you never looked at.
• Low altitude maneuvering, stall/spin, CFIT (R3) — the 1,500 feet AGL floor is the mitigation (AI.IX.C.S2). Brief it as a hard number, not a target.
• Distraction, task prioritization, disorientation (R4) — the top of the maneuver is nose-high, slow, and rolling, which is where pilots lose the horizon. Pick a prominent reference 180° from the entry heading before you start so the rollout target is a place, not a number.
• Uncoordinated flight (R5) — this is the spin-critical one. See the rudder discussion; the maximum right rudder demand and the minimum airspeed arrive at the same instant (AFH 10-5).
• Energy management (R6) — see above.
• Rate and radius of turn with confined area operations (R7) — at a fixed bank with decreasing airspeed the radius shrinks as the maneuver progresses, so it fits in less lateral space than students expect. Still plan it: know the turn direction, terrain, and airspace boundaries, and pick the entry heading so the 180° puts you somewhere useful.

At the top the airplane is at minimum airspeed, high power, nose high, rolling — with the largest right rudder requirement of the maneuver (AFH 10-5). The failure mode is a student who runs out of right rudder, lets the nose yaw left, and pulls. That is a spin entry, not a botched maneuver.

Set the take-the-controls criteria in the brief and say them out loud:

• Any stall buffet
• Any uncommanded yaw the student doesn't correct
• Bank outside a stated band

Then use the words — calmly announce "I have the flight controls" (AIH 9-9) — and actually take them, because if you allow the student to remain on the controls you may not have full and effective control, and anxious students can be incredibly strong (AIH 9-9).

The AIH's boundary applies with unusual force here: students should never be allowed to exceed the flight instructor's limits, and instructors should not exceed their own ability to perceive a problem, decide upon a course of action, and physically react (AIH 9-9). The recovery itself is standard: reduce AOA first, then level the wings with coordinated rudder.