An aileron roll involves a four-step maneuver.
You’ll rotate your airplane 360 degrees around its longitudinal axis. However, to do this successfully you must keep the nose following a tight circle around a point on the horizon.
Thanks to the brisk roll rate of the Extra 300S, the aileron roll one is an easy aerobatic maneuver to accomplish. As with many aerobatics in the Extra 300S, performing an aileron roll occurs very quickly (its roll rate exceeds 400 degrees per second).
The following is the diagram of the roll: Start by selecting a reference point on the horizon, such as a smokestack, road, building or even a cloud. In this example, I’m using an antenna/smokestack.
Maintain a level flight and airspeed of about 140 knots. Bring the stick back slowly so you’re raising the nose smoothly to 20 – 30 degrees above the horizon. This neutralizes the elevator and deflects the aileron fully in the direction of the roll.
Remember, pulling the nose up too much or too little at the start of the maneuver results in a bad roll. Look to the left and make certain you’ve set the correct pitch attitude.
Otherwise, by increasing backpressure after you’ve established the correct pitch attitude may force you from the reference point (the smokestacks in this example) or may drop the nose too much when you’ve started inverted flight.
Most aerobatic professionals believe it’s easier to start with rolls to the left. Therefore, hold backpressure on the stick and move it quickly, but smoothly, all the way to one side.
Maintain controls in that position until you complete the roll. Center the stick as the wings become level with the horizon. After the roll is completed the nose is usually 20 – 30 degrees below the horizon.
Try these to test your skill:
Slow rolls and snap rolls
Other types of rolls you can try include slow rolls and snap rolls (called flick rolls in Europe). Most slow rolls must be flown normally on a straight line.
Maintain a constant rate for the roll and the longitudinal axis of the airplane must be straight.
To fly this type of roll successfully means that you must constantly change rudder and elevator control inputs throughout the roll.
A snap roll also must be flown normally on a straight line.
A snap roll is an autorotation with one wing stalled. You must intentionally stall your aircraft by applying positive G-forces and in an outside snap, you need to stall your aircraft by applying negative G-forces.
The rudder is then used in either case to start autorotation as in a spin.
The Immelmann The Immelmann turn is a simple yet very effective maneuver under the proper technical circumstances.
Many historians credit a World War I German ace named Max Immelmann with creating this maneuver.
However, the version of the maneuver with which most of us are familiar today from aerobatics is not the maneuver that Max Immelmann found so successful.