Steep Spiral (ASEL, ASES)

It is the alternate to steep turns. For ASEL or ASES the evaluator must select Task A or B — plus Task C or D, and Tasks E and F (FAA-S-ACS-25, Area IX note). So you prepare both A and B and let the evaluator choose. It is not applicable to AMEL or AMES; the multiengine list is Task A and Task E.

The AFH's objective: to rapidly dissipate substantial amounts of altitude while remaining over a selected spot — a maneuver that may be useful during an emergency landing (AFH 10-3). Mechanically it is a gliding turn in which the pilot maintains a constant radius around a surface-based reference point — similar to turns around a point, but rapidly descending (AFH 10-3).

Teach the purpose first and the choreography second. A student who understands they are practicing "engine quit, I have a field, I have too much altitude" flies a different maneuver than one who has been told to make three circles. That connection is explicitly a knowledge element: relationship to emergency landing procedures (AI.IX.B.K2).

Be precise about the difference, though: while there are similarities between a steep spiral and an emergency descent, the reasons for the two maneuvers may differ, and the airspeed and configuration are usually different (AFH 10-3).

• Clear the area (AI.IX.B.S1)
• Select an altitude sufficient to continue through at least three 360° turns (AI.IX.B.S2)
• Establish and maintain the spiral, not to exceed 60° angle of bank, holding a constant radius about a suitable ground reference point (AI.IX.B.S3)
• Apply wind-drift correction to track a constant-radius circle, bank not to exceed 60° at the steepest point (AI.IX.B.S4)
• Divide attention between airplane control, traffic avoidance, and ground track while maintaining coordinated flight (AI.IX.B.S5)
• Maintain the specified airspeed ±10 knots, roll out toward an object or specified heading ±10°, and complete the maneuver no lower than 1,500 feet AGL (AI.IX.B.S6)
• Analyze and correct common errors (AI.IX.B.S7)

Note what's missing: there is no altitude tolerance — you're deliberately losing altitude. The graded numbers are airspeed, rollout heading, and the 1,500-foot floor.

The AFH sequence, which is also your narration script (AFH 10-3, 10-4):

1. Clear the airspace for traffic and hazards.
2. Throttle to idle, carburetor heat applied if equipped, and gliding speed established.
3. Once the proper airspeed is attained, lower the pitch and roll to the desired bank angle as the reference point is reached.
4. Consider the distance from the reference point, since that establishes the turning radius — and the steepest bank should not exceed 60° (AFH 10-4).

The distance-sets-the-radius point is the one students skip. If they roll in too close, the required downwind bank exceeds 60° and there is no fix except to exit and re-enter farther out.

Same physics as every other constant-radius maneuver, taught in one sentence: steepen the bank on downwind headings and shallow the bank on upwind headings (AFH 10-4). The reason: as groundspeed increases, the observed radius of the turn increases; as groundspeed decreases, the radius decreases — so the pilot compensates for changes in groundspeed by varying the bank angle throughout the turn (AFH 7-3).

Then add the part that makes it a spiral and not a turn around a point: the wind is not the only thing changing. Continually correct for any changes in wind direction and velocity to maintain a constant radius (AFH 10-4), and remember that as you descend through several hundred feet the wind itself typically decreases and backs. The bank that was right on the first revolution is not the bank that's right on the third.

Because airspeed tends to fluctuate as the bank angle is changed throughout the maneuver (AFH 10-4), and the bank is changing continuously by design. The AFH's instruction is anticipatory, not reactive: anticipate pitch corrections as the bank angle is varied (AFH 10-4).

Teach it as a pairing — every aileron input gets a matching elevator input. Rolling in steeper, the vertical component of lift decreases and the nose falls, so airspeed builds; rolling out shallower, the nose rises and airspeed decays. Maintaining a constant airspeed throughout the maneuver is an important skill for a pilot to develop (AFH 10-4), and it's the only airspeed tolerance you're graded on (±10 knots, AI.IX.B.S6).

Operating the engine at idle for any prolonged period during the glide may result in excessive engine cooling, spark plug fouling, or carburetor ice (AFH 10-4). The mitigation: periodically advance the throttle and sustain it for a few seconds, and monitor cylinder head temperature gauges if available (AFH 10-4).

The technique detail examiners like: when advancing the throttle, adjust pitch attitude to maintain a constant airspeed, and preferably do it when headed into the wind (AFH 10-4) — into the wind is where the bank is shallowest and you have the most capacity to spare.

Execute at least three turns and roll out toward a definite object or on a specific heading (AFH 10-4). Then raise the difficulty: to make the exercise more challenging, roll out on a heading perpendicular to or directly into the wind rather than toward a specific object — the AFH notes this would be a particularly useful skill in an actual emergency (AFH 10-4).

The instructional gold is one line further on: have the student note the altitude lost during each revolution, which helps determine when to roll out in an actual emergency so as not to be too high or too low to make a safe approach (AFH 10-4). That turns three circles into a usable emergency-landing tool.

During rollout, smooth and accurate application of the flight controls allows recovery to a wings-level glide with no change in airspeed; recovery to normal cruise proceeds after the wings-level glide is established (AFH 10-4).

Per the AFH (AFH 10-4):

1. Not clearing the area
2. Inadequate pitch control on entry or rollout
3. Not correcting the bank angle to compensate for wind
4. Poor flight control coordination
5. Ineffective use of trim
6. Inadequate airspeed control
7. Becoming disoriented
8. Performing by reference to the flight instruments rather than visual references
9. Not scanning for other traffic during the maneuver
10. Not completing the turn on the designated heading or reference

Numbers 3 and 6 are the pair that fails students, and they're linked: a pilot who isn't varying bank for wind ends up chasing the reference point with pitch, and the airspeed goes with it.

No. 91.307(c) prohibits a pilot carrying any person other than a crewmember from executing an intentional maneuver exceeding a bank of 60° relative to the horizon or a nose-up or nose-down attitude of 30° unless each occupant wears an approved parachute. Two reasons it doesn't bite here: the standard says the bank shall not exceed 60° (AI.IX.B.S3), so at or below the limit you're outside 91.307(c) anyway; and 91.307(d)(2) excepts spins and other flight maneuvers required by the regulations for any certificate or rating when given by a certificated flight instructor — instructing this maneuver is exactly that case.

Know both halves. Examiners ask this to see whether you understand that your CFI certificate is what makes the exception apply.

Follow the explanation phase — accomplished before the flight, covering lesson objectives, completion standards, and a thorough preflight briefing (AIH 9-5). Sequence it the way you'll fly it, because the AIH says the demonstration must follow the same sequence as the explanation to avoid confusion (AIH 9-7):

1. Why — rapid altitude loss over a spot; the emergency-landing link (AFH 10-3; AI.IX.B.K2).
2. Where — point selection, entry altitude, and the 1,500 feet AGL hard floor (AI.IX.B.S6). Compute the entry altitude backwards from three turns plus the floor.
3. What you'll do — idle, carb heat, glide speed, roll in at the point (AFH 10-3, 10-4).
4. What the wind does — steeper downwind, shallower upwind (AFH 10-4).
5. Safety — clearing turns, the 60° bank ceiling, engine warm-ups, and the positive exchange of flight controls (AIH 9-8).
6. Questions — the AIH says to encourage questions about any step before leaving this phase (AIH 9-5).

It means your narration has to survive a maneuver where the bank, pitch, and airspeed never settle. Two practical consequences:

Pre-load the talking: say the coming change before it happens — "coming around downwind now, watch the bank steepen" — rather than describing what already happened. In the demonstration phase the AIH tells you to avoid extraneous activity so the student gets a clear understanding of the task (AIH 9-5); a running commentary of surprises is extraneous.

Keep the demonstration matched to the brief: if it deviates because of a gust, wind shift, or your own error, acknowledge and explain the deviation immediately (AIH 9-5). On a descending maneuver in changing wind, you will use this.

Name the error, give the rule, then give the input — in that order, so the correction transfers instead of becoming dependence:

1. Name it — "your radius is opening up on the downwind side."
2. Rule — "higher groundspeed needs more bank; where groundspeed is fastest the bank should be steepest, where slowest, shallow" (AFH 7-5).
3. Input — "roll in another five degrees now, and start taking it out as you come around into the wind."

Then let them fly the next revolution. The AIH's guidance is that it is frequently better, safety permitting, to let the student progress part of the way into the mistake and find a way out, because it is difficult to learn a maneuver properly if you seldom have the opportunity to correct an error (AIH 9-12). An oval on revolution two that the student fixes themselves teaches more than a perfect circle you flew for them.

The ACS adds two risk elements here that steep turns doesn't have — effects of wind (R6) and airframe or airspeed limitations (R7) — and you're required to explain and teach all of them (FAA-S-ACS-25, Task IX.B):

• Division of attention (R1) — the student fixates on the point. The AFH's warning is general to ground reference work: a pilot fixating on any one reference loses the ability to determine rate, which significantly degrades performance; scan across several references (AFH 7-1).
• Collision hazards (R2) — you're descending through altitudes other traffic is using, in a turn, with your attention outside and low. Two 90° clearing turns looking left, right, above, and below before entry (AFH 7-2), and traffic avoidance is written into the skill element itself (AI.IX.B.S5).
• Low altitude maneuvering, stall/spin, CFIT (R3) — the 1,500 feet AGL completion floor is the mitigation (AI.IX.B.S6). Brief a hard "roll out now" altitude above it, because a student flying the point will not look at the altimeter.
• Distraction, disorientation (R4) — three descending 360s in a bank is a recipe for it; disorientation is a listed common error (AFH 10-4). Pick the rollout object before entry.
• Uncoordinated flight (R5) — a gliding, descending turn with a student chasing the point invites bottom rudder. This is the classic base-to-final geometry at altitude, which is exactly why the maneuver is worth teaching.
• Effects of wind (R6) — see the constant-radius discussion; also brief that the wind changes as you descend (AFH 10-4).
• Airframe or airspeed limitations (R7) — a descending turn accelerates. Brief the glide speed, the never-exceed limits, and that ground reference maneuvers should not exceed an airspeed greater than the maneuvering speed as a general rule (AFH 7-2).

Because the student's error signal points the wrong way. In a level steep turn a nose-low excursion is obvious. In a spiral the nose is supposed to be low and the airplane is supposed to be descending, so the cue that something is wrong arrives late — usually as an airspeed that has quietly decayed while the student holds a steep bank and pulls to keep the point in sight.

Two guards you brief and enforce:

Know the number before you fly: as part of preflight planning, determine the POH/AFM predicted stall speed at 50°, or at the highest bank angle expected during the maneuver, to assure a safety margin above the stall (AFH 7-2). At 60° of bank an airplane that stalls at 50 knots level stalls at 70 knots (AFH 10-2).

Coordination is not optional: uncoordinated flight is a named risk element (AI.IX.B.R5) and poor flight control coordination is a named common error (AFH 10-4). A skidding steep gliding turn is a spin entry.

Start from the AIH's default, which is restraint: correction of student errors does not include taking over immediately when a mistake is made — safety permitting, it is frequently better to let the student progress part of the way into the mistake and find a way out, because it is difficult to learn a maneuver properly if you seldom have the opportunity to correct an error (AIH 9-12).

But this maneuver compresses "safety permitting" harder than any other in Area IX: you are descending, at up to 60° of bank (AI.IX.B.S3), with the student's eyes locked on a point outside and a stall speed that has climbed to roughly 1.4 times the level-flight number. Altitude, airspeed, and attention are all being spent at once. So brief hard triggers out loud before the flight and hold yourself to them:

• Bank exceeding 60° — the ACS ceiling, and the point where load factor and stall speed both climb steeply (AI.IX.B.S3; AFH 10-2)
• Airspeed decaying below the briefed glide speed while the bank stays steep — the quiet killer described above
• Any bottom rudder used to hold the point, in a descending steep turn
• Descent through your stated floor, set above the 1,500 feet AGL completion floor (AI.IX.B.S6), while the student is still fixated

Then use the words — calmly announce "I have the flight controls" (AIH 9-9) — and take them completely. If you let the student stay on the controls you may not have full and effective control of the airplane, and anxious students can be incredibly strong and exhibit reactions inappropriate to the situation (AIH 9-9). If a recovery is necessary, there is absolutely nothing to be gained by having the student on the controls and having to fight for control (AIH 9-9).

The boundary that decides all of it: 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 within their ability to fly the airplane (AIH 9-9). Set those numbers on the ground, where you're calm, not at 2,000 feet in a spiral.