Eights on Pylons (ASEL, ASES)

No. For ASEL or ASES the evaluator must select Tasks E and F from Area IX, along with Task A or B and Task C or D (FAA-S-ACS-25, Area IX note). Eights on pylons is mandatory on every single-engine airplane CFI checkride. It is not applicable to AMEL or AMES.

Which means the hardest ground reference maneuver in the book is also the one you are guaranteed to teach in front of an examiner, under all three bars: describe and explain the knowledge, explain and teach the risk management, and demonstrate and simultaneously explain the skills (FAA-S-ACS-25, Task IX.F).

The AFH's framing: it is the most advanced and difficult of the ground reference maneuvers, and because of the techniques involved, eights on pylons are unmatched for developing intuitive control of the airplane (AFH 7-14). It is similar to eights around pylons except that altitude is varied to maintain a specific visual reference to the pivot points (AFH 7-14).

The instructional distinction to state on the ground: in previous ground track maneuvers the airplane flies a prescribed path over the ground and the pilot corrects for wind; with eights on pylons, the pilot maintains lateral orientation to a specific spot on the ground — which develops the ability to maneuver the airplane accurately while dividing attention between the flightpath and the selected pylons (AFH 7-15).

• Clear the area (AI.IX.F.S1)
• Determine the approximate pivotal altitude (AI.IX.F.S2)
• Select suitable pylons that permit straight-and-level flight between the pylons (AI.IX.F.S3)
• Enter in the correct direction and position at an appropriate altitude and airspeed (AI.IX.F.S4)
• Correct bank angle for the conditions, not to exceed 40° (AI.IX.F.S5)
• Smooth and continuous corrections so the line-of-sight reference line remains on the pylon (AI.IX.F.S6)
• Divide attention between accurate, coordinated airplane control and outside visual references (AI.IX.F.S7)
• Maintain pylon position using appropriate pivotal altitude, avoiding slips and skids (AI.IX.F.S8)
• Analyze and correct common errors (AI.IX.F.S9)

Notice what is absent: there is no altitude tolerance. Pivotal altitude changes continuously with groundspeed, so the pylon — not a number — is the standard. That's a teaching point, not an omission.

Imagine a line parallel to the airplane's lateral axis extending from the pilot's eyes to the pylon; along that line the airplane appears to pivot as it turns around the pylon. If a taut string extended from the pilot's eyes to the pylon, it would remain parallel to the lateral axis as the airplane turns. The goal is to keep that line parallel to the lateral axis — not at an angle to it (AFH 7-14).

The AFH names the instructor error directly: when explaining eights on pylons, instructors sometimes use the term "wingtip" to represent the proper visual reference line. This interpretation is not correct (AFH 7-14). High-wing, low-wing, swept-wing, and tapered-wing airplanes, and tandem versus side-by-side seating, all present different angles from the pilot's eye to the wingtip (AFH 7-14).

What you may say instead: the reference line may be positioned in relation to the wingtip — ahead, behind, above, or below — and differs for each pilot and from each seat, especially in tandem-seat airplanes. In side-by-side airplanes there is very little variation between people seated with their eyes at approximately the same level (AFH 7-14). So find the student's line, from their seat, and name it for them.

The altitude at which, for a given groundspeed, the projection of the visual reference line to the pylon appears to pivot (AFH 7-15). The rule of thumb: square the groundspeed, then divide by 15 (mph) or 11.3 (knots), and add the MSL altitude of the ground reference (AFH 7-15).

Teach the definition before the formula, and make the student say the words "for a given groundspeed" out loud, because that clause is the whole maneuver. The formula is where instruction goes wrong on this Task: a student who leads with arithmetic computes one number on the ground, flies to it, and then fights the airplane for the rest of the lesson wondering why the pylon won't hold still. Groundspeed changes continuously around the turn, so the correct pivotal altitude changes continuously too — the computed number is only the entry altitude.

Two teaching moves that fix it:

1. Ask for the number at four points around the circle — upwind, both crosswinds, downwind — so the student sees four different answers before they ever fly it. The spread, not the average, is the lesson
2. Refuse the calculator in flight. The student finds the altitude by what the pylon does (see the demonstration card later in this Task), and uses the computed figure only to get in the neighborhood

The definition is the correlation-level item here. A student at the rote level recites 11.3; a student at the correlation level can tell you why the airplane must climb on the downwind side.

Pivotal altitude is determined by the airplane's groundspeed (AFH 7-15). Because headings throughout the turns continuously vary from downwind to upwind, the groundspeed constantly changes, which results in the proper pivotal altitude varying slightly throughout the turn — so climb or descend as necessary to hold the visual reference line on the pylons (AFH 7-16).

What does not change it: bank angle. The AFH says it twice — pivotal altitude does not vary with the angle of bank unless the bank is steep enough to affect the groundspeed (AFH 7-15), and the bank chosen does not alter the pivotal altitude (AFH 7-17). What bank does respond to is geometry: distance from the pylon affects the angle of bank (AFH 7-16).

Being able to explain why bank drops out is the difference between reciting the rule and teaching it — see the derivation in the Deep Dive.

If the visual reference line appears to move ahead of the pylon (the pylon appears to move back), increase altitude. If it appears to move behind the pylon (the pylon appears to move ahead), decrease altitude (AFH 7-17).

Why not the altimeter: variations in pylon position are according to the apparent movement of the visual reference line. Attempting to correct pivotal altitude by using the altimeter is ineffective (AFH 7-17). The pylon is the instrument. Teach the student to fly the picture and to treat the altimeter as an after-the-fact confirmation. Worth naming the contrast in the brief: the AFH lists performing by reference to the instruments rather than visual references as a common error for the performance maneuvers in Chapter 10 — steep turns, steep spirals, chandelles, lazy eights — but not in the eights-on-pylons list (AFH 7-18), because here the visual reference is doing something the instruments cannot do at all. On a chandelle the instruments are a crutch; on pylons they are simply the wrong tool.

Stop it immediately, and tell them why it works and why it will still kill them. Deflecting the rudder to yaw the airplane and force the wing and reference line forward or backward to the pylon places the airplane in uncoordinated flight, at low altitude, with steep bank angles, and should not be attempted (AFH 7-17). The ACS makes it a graded element: maintain pylon position using appropriate pivotal altitude, avoiding slips and skids (AI.IX.F.S8), and uncoordinated flight is a named risk (AI.IX.F.R5).

The correct corrections for temporary variations from gusts or inattention are made with bank, briefly (AFH 7-17):

• Reference line lagging behind → reduce the bank angle slightly to fly relatively straight and bring it forward
• Reference line moved ahead → increase the bank angle temporarily to turn it back

With practice these corrections become slight enough to be barely noticeable, and with prompt, very fine control pressures it is possible to hold the reference line directly on the pylon even in strong winds (AFH 7-17).

Per the AFH (AFH 7-16):

• Sufficiently prominent that the pilot can see them while completing the turn around one and heading for the next
• Adequately spaced to provide time for planning the turns, but not so far apart as to cause unnecessary straight-and-level flight — the straight-and-level segment should last 3 to 5 seconds
• At the same elevation, since differences of over a few feet necessitate climbing or descending between each turn
• Along a line that lies perpendicular to the direction of the wind

The ACS phrases the requirement as selecting pylons that permit straight-and-level flight between the pylons (AI.IX.F.S3). Poor choice of pylons is a listed common error (AFH 7-18) — and it is an error the instructor usually owns, since many flight instructors already have references selected (AFH 7-16).

Fly diagonally crosswind between the pylons to a point downwind from the first pylon, so that the first turn can be made into the wind (AFH 7-17). As the airplane approaches a position where the pylon appears to be just ahead of the wingtip, begin the turn by lowering the upwind wing to the point where the visual reference line aligns with the pylon — the reference line should then appear to pivot on it (AFH 7-17).

Then the part students get wrong: as the airplane heads upwind, the groundspeed decreases, which lowers the pivotal altitude — so descend to hold the visual reference line on the pylon (AFH 7-17). You are trading altitude for groundspeed, continuously, in both directions.

Rolling out: as the airplane turns toward a downwind heading, roll out to proceed diagonally to a point tangent on the downwind side of the second pylon, completing the rollout with the proper wind correction angle so the airplane arrives at a point downwind from the second pylon equal in distance to the corresponding point at the first (AFH 7-17). Then begin the opposite turn by lowering the upwind wing again (AFH 7-17).

No — and this is the single fact that separates eights on pylons from every other ground reference maneuver. Since this maneuver does not require the turn to be completed at a constant radius, the pilot does not need to apply drift correction to complete the turn (AFH 7-17).

You correct with altitude, not with bank-for-radius. Where you do use wind correction is the straight segment between pylons, so the entry geometry at the second pylon matches the first (AFH 7-17).

Teach this contrast explicitly, because a student arriving from turns around a point has spent weeks learning to vary bank for groundspeed and will keep doing it here. Failure to assume a heading between pylons that compensates sufficiently for drift is the listed error that catches them (AFH 7-18).

Per the AFH (AFH 7-18):

1. Failure to adequately clear the area, initially and throughout
2. Skidding or slipping in turns — the AFH names using rudder to hold the pylon as the archetype
3. Excessive gain or loss of altitude
4. Poor choice of pylons
5. Not entering the pylon turns into the wind
6. Failure to assume a heading between pylons that sufficiently compensates for drift
7. Failure to time the bank so the turn entry is completed with the pylon in position
8. Abrupt control usage
9. Inability to select pivotal altitude

Error 9 is a ground-school failure showing up in the air, and error 4 is usually yours. Fix both before the airplane moves.

Start with what has to be true. For the visual reference line — the line from the pilot's eyes, parallel to the lateral axis — to stay on the pylon, the depression angle from the airplane down to the pylon must equal the bank angle. The lateral axis is tilted from horizontal by exactly the bank angle, so the sightline along it points down by that same angle.

Geometrically, with h = height above the pylon and R = the airplane's turn radius over the ground:

• tan(bank) = h / R, so h = R × tan(bank)

Now substitute the radius-of-turn formula. PHAK gives it as R = V² ÷ (11.26 × tangent of bank angle), with V in knots and R in feet (PHAK 5-39). Using groundspeed for a ground-referenced turn:

• h = [ GS² ÷ (11.26 × tan(bank)) ] × tan(bank)
• h = GS² ÷ 11.26

The tangent of the bank angle appears in both places and cancels. That is the entire reason pivotal altitude does not vary with the angle of bank unless the bank is steep enough to affect the groundspeed (AFH 7-15), and why the bank chosen does not alter the pivotal altitude (AFH 7-17). And 11.26 is the AFH's 11.3 (AFH 7-15) — the same constant, arriving from the same physics.

The physical restatement, which is the version to give a student: at one specific altitude for one specific groundspeed, the angular rate at which your line of sight sweeps across the ground exactly matches the angular rate at which the airplane turns. Steeper bank turns you faster and pulls you closer, in exactly offsetting amounts.

So what does bank set, if not altitude? Distance from the pylon affects the angle of bank (AFH 7-16). Fly closer and you need more bank to keep the reference line on the pylon; fly farther out and you need less. Eights on pylons are performed at bank angles ranging from shallow to steep (AFH 7-17), capped by the standard at 40° (AI.IX.F.S5).

This is also the AFH's built-in difficulty ladder for the instructor: as proficiency is gained, the instructor should increase the complexity of the maneuver by directing the learner to enter at a distance from the pylon that results in a specific bank angle at the steepest point in the pylon turn (AFH 7-17). That's a ready-made lesson plan progression — same maneuver, escalating precision, no new procedure to teach.

The AFH expects a real preflight estimate, and it names the sources (AFH 7-16):

• Wind direction and velocity from weather reports and from consultation with other pilots flying in the area
• MSL elevation of the references from the sectional chart
• The range of maneuvering airspeeds, based on weight, from the POH
• Then compute pivotal altitude for upwind, downwind, and crosswind

Doing this together is the explanation phase working as designed — accomplished before the flight, with lesson objectives, completion standards, and a thorough preflight briefing (AIH 9-5). A student who computed the three numbers themselves has a prediction to test; a student handed one number has a target to chase.

The AFH gives you a discovery sequence rather than a lecture (AFH 7-16). Fly it and narrate it:

1. At maneuvering speed, below the estimated pivotal altitude, roll into a medium-banked turn. The projected reference line appears to move forward along the ground (the pylon appears to move back).
2. Climb to an altitude well above pivotal altitude, return to maneuvering speed, repeat the medium-banked turn. Now the reference line appears to move backward across the ground (the pylon appears to move forward).
3. Reduce power and descend at maneuvering speed in a continuing medium-bank turn around the pylon. The apparent backward movement slows as altitude is lost and eventually stops for an instant — that instant is pivotal altitude.
4. Continue below and the line begins moving forward again. If you've gone below, increase power to maintain airspeed while regaining altitude to the point where the reference line moves neither backward nor forward but pivots (AFH 7-16).

The altitude at which the visual reference line ceases to move across the ground is the pivotal altitude (AFH 7-16). Bracketing it from both sides is what makes the concept stick — and it is the AIH's principle in action: let the student see the effect rather than be told about it, since it is difficult for learners to learn a maneuver properly if they seldom have the opportunity to correct an error (AIH 9-12).

The narration has to carry the why continuously, because the corrections are tiny and invisible from the right seat. Explain required power settings, aircraft attitudes, and other pertinent factors while demonstrating (AIH 9-7), in the same sequence you briefed (AIH 9-7):

• "Cleared. Pivotal altitudes: downwind 1,170, crosswind 885, upwind 640 above the pylon (AFH 7-15, 7-16)."
• "Diagonally crosswind between the pylons, going downwind of the first one so the first turn is into the wind (AFH 7-17)."
• "Pylon coming just ahead of the wingtip — lowering the upwind wing until my reference line sits on it (AFH 7-17)."
• "Heading upwind now: groundspeed dropping, pivotal altitude dropping, so I'm descending (AFH 7-17)."
• "Line's creeping ahead — so I add altitude, and I'm doing it with pitch and power, not rudder (AFH 7-17)."
• "Rolling out with a wind correction angle so I arrive at the second pylon the same distance downwind as I did the first (AFH 7-17)."

If the demonstration deviates from the brief — and in gusty air it will — acknowledge and explain the deviation immediately (AIH 9-5).

Almost always a mistake — an error of thought, where the student plans the wrong thing and executes it successfully, often from a gap or misconception in understanding (AIH 3-33). The misconception is specific and predictable: they believe the reference line is a wingtip they can point at things, rather than a line from their eyes parallel to the lateral axis (AFH 7-14), and that the way to point a wingtip is with yaw.

The fix is not more practice — it is the ground brief again, plus the geometry of why altitude is the control. Practice on top of a misconception builds a faulty habit, which the AIH tells you to detect and prevent during the student-tells-student-does phase (AIH 9-8). The AIH also notes the natural tendency to "explain away" errors as one-time events that will never happen again (AIH 3-35) — do not let a student write off a rudder correction that worked.

Contrast with a genuine slip — an error of action (AIH 3-33) — which here looks like late, coarse pitch inputs from a student who knows exactly what to do. That one is fixed by practice, and by working deliberately at a comfortable pace, since hurrying does not achieve the same results as faster performance gained by increasing skill through continued practice (AIH 3-33).

And when the pylon is being held cleanly, confirm it isn't luck. When you suspect a student performed correctly without understanding the principles, require them to vary the performance slightly, combine it with other operations, or apply the same elements to other maneuvers — those who don't understand probably can't do it successfully (AIH 9-12). Probes that work here:

• Ask them to predict whether they'll climb or descend before each half of the eight, and by roughly how much.
• Change the entry distance to force a different steepest bank (AFH 7-17) and ask what happens to pivotal altitude. Correct answer: nothing (AFH 7-17).
• Ask what happens to pivotal altitude if the wind doubles. Correct answer: the spread doubles; the crosswind value is unchanged.
• Ask them to explain why the maneuver has no altitude tolerance in the ACS.

You must explain and teach these (FAA-S-ACS-25, Task IX.F):

• Division of attention (R1) — the student stares at the pylon. The AFH's general warning applies with force: fixating on any one reference loses the ability to determine rate, which significantly degrades performance (AFH 7-1). Require periodic altimeter, engine, and traffic checks and verify them out loud.
• Collision hazards (R2) — low, turning, attention outside and down, near towers and wires (AFH 7-2). Two 90° clearing turns, left, right, above, and below before entry (AFH 7-2), continuing throughout (AI.IX.F.S1). Failure to adequately clear the area initially and throughout is the first listed common error (AFH 7-18).
• Low altitude maneuvering, stall/spin, CFIT (R3) — you are a few hundred to about a thousand feet above the pylons with bank up to 40° (AI.IX.F.S5). Never hold a pylon with rudder (AFH 7-17), and know the numbers: determine the POH/AFM predicted stall speed at 50° or the highest bank angle expected during preflight planning to assure a margin (AFH 7-2).
• Distractions, task prioritization, disorientation (R4) — the pylon changes sides twice per eight while the airplane climbs and descends. Poor pylon choice makes this worse (AFH 7-18), so fix it on the ground.
• Uncoordinated flight (R5) — skidding or slipping in turns is a listed common error in its own right (AFH 7-18) and a graded skill element (AI.IX.F.S8). A skidding steep turn at low altitude is a spin entry.
• Energy management (R6) — you are continuously trading altitude and power to track a moving pivotal altitude. Increase power to maintain airspeed while regaining altitude (AFH 7-16), and make corrections smooth and continuous (AI.IX.F.S6) — abrupt control usage is a listed error (AFH 7-18).
• Emergency landing considerations (R7) — the ACS calls this out for this Task specifically. The AFH's general guidance is to consider engine failure and have one or more locations available for an emergency landing (AFH 7-2). Pick pylons over terrain that supports a forced landing and keep a field in mind through both turns.