Chandelles (ASEL, ASES)

A maximum performance 180° climbing turn that begins from approximately straight-and-level flight and finishes with the airplane wings level, nose high, just above stall speed (AFH 10-4). The goal is to gain the most altitude possible for a given bank angle and power setting — but note what's actually graded: not the altitude gained, but your proficiency at maximizing climb performance for the power and bank selected (AFH 10-4).

Get the phases backwards and the maneuver falls apart: pitch set too low and the airspeed never decreases to just above stall; pitch set too high and the airplane may stall before the maneuver is complete (AFH 10-4).

• Altitude selected so the maneuver is completed no lower than 1,500 feet AGL (CA.V.C.S2)
• Bank approximately 30° (CA.V.C.S4)
• Constant bank and continuously decreasing airspeed to the 90° point (CA.V.C.S5)
• Constant-rate rollout from the 90° to the 180° point, maintaining power and a constant pitch attitude (CA.V.C.S6)
• Rollout complete at the 180° point ±10°, just above stall airspeed, held momentarily while avoiding a stall (CA.V.C.S7)
• Resume straight-and-level with minimum loss of altitude (CA.V.C.S8)

Per FAA-S-ACS-7B, Task V.C. Note the heading tolerance at the 180° point is the only ± tolerance in the task — there is no altitude or airspeed band to hold.

• Configuration: flaps and landing gear (if retractable) UP before starting (AFH 10-5)
• Entry speed: from straight-and-level flight or a shallow dive at the manufacturer's recommended airspeed — in many cases that's VA or VO (AFH 10-5)
• Power: fixed-pitch propeller — throttle set so as not to exceed RPM limitations; constant-speed propeller — normal cruise or climb power as appropriate (AFH 10-5)

Because as airspeed decreases, left-turning tendencies such as P-factor have greater effect (AFH 10-5). You're at high power and continuously decreasing airspeed — the exact recipe. Progressively increase right rudder to stay coordinated, judging it by feel (slip/skid sensation), a glance at the ball, and control pressure (AFH 10-5).

Yes, and examiners love this one. At the slowest airspeed near completion, right rudder pressure is significant, especially rolling out of a LEFT chandelle, because left adverse yaw from 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 just a reduction in right rudder (AFH 10-5).

Overbanking tendency, and 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 — increasing top aileron as you slow — is what keeps it there until the rollout begins at the start of the final 90° (AFH 10-5).

A slight increase of elevator back pressure is required to keep the pitch attitude from decreasing as the bank rolls out (AFH 10-5). Two competing effects explain why: as the bank decreases, the vertical component of lift increases, which would raise the nose — but airspeed keeps decaying, so the elevator gets less effective and needs the extra pressure to hold the same attitude. Net: hold the attitude visually, not by control position.

At 180° of turn: wings level to the horizon, airspeed just above power-on stall speed, and the nose-high attitude held momentarily (AFH 10-5; CA.V.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 (CA.V.C.S8). "Held momentarily" is a real requirement; ballooning straight into a nose-down recovery is an unsatisfactory finish.

From the handbook's list (AFH 10-6), the ones that fail applicants:

• Initial bank too shallow → the airplane stalls
• Initial bank too steep → failure to gain maximum performance
• Allowing the bank to increase after initial establishment
• Not starting the recovery at the 90° point
• Allowing the pitch to increase as the bank rolls out during the second 90°
• Leveling the wings before the 180° point
• Pitch low on recovery, leaving airspeed well above stall
• Executing a steep turn instead of a climbing maneuver
• Stalling at any point; not clearing the area; not scanning for traffic

Counterintuitively, restraint wins. Per PHAK, the smoothest pull-up possible, with a moderate load factor, delivers the greatest gain in altitude in a chandelle — 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). Every G you pull is energy spent turning, not climbing.

Two constraints bracket it:

• Upper bound — the entry pull-up loads the wing. Per PHAK, the recommended entry speed for chandelles and lazy eights is generally near the manufacturer's design maneuvering speed, which allows maximum development of load factors without exceeding the load limits (PHAK 5-36).
• Lower bound — the maneuver ends just above stall speed after 180° of climbing turn (AFH 10-4). Enter slow and there simply isn't enough airspeed to convert; you either stall early or level off with nothing gained.

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

Experience in the specific airplane, targeted at one outcome: at the 180° point the airspeed is just above stall and the wings are level (AFH 10-4). The handbook frames it as a two-sided error:

• Pitch too low → airspeed never decreases to just above stall speed (AFH 10-4)
• Pitch too high → the airplane may aerodynamically stall prior to completion of the maneuver (AFH 10-4)

Because that pitch attitude is held for the entire second 90°, choosing it at the 90° point is the single highest-leverage decision in the maneuver.

Because the rollout is your only remaining control over where the airplane's heading and wing attitude arrive together. The AFH is direct: if the rate of rollout 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). At 30° of bank spread over 90° of heading change, that's a slow, deliberate, continuous roll — not a pause-then-roll.

Because the entry is a pull-up at high speed and the exit is at minimum speed — the stall margin is closing from both ends. A stall at any G-load above +1G is an accelerated maneuver stall, and the AFH lists improperly executed turns and pullouts from steep dives as its most common inadvertent causes (AFH 5-19). Two guards:

• Enter at or below VA/VO, which ensures the wing reaches critical AOA and unloads before the design load limit is exceeded (AFH 5-19)
• Set the 90°-point pitch attitude realistically rather than optimistically — the high-pitch error is what produces a stall before the 180° point (AFH 10-4)

Bank angle is the knob that decides how the energy is split between turning and climbing. Steeper bank produces a higher rate of turn at a given airspeed (AFH 3-14), meaning you complete the 180° sooner — with less time to convert speed into altitude, and a larger share of lift pointed sideways rather than up. That's the handbook's error "initial bank too steep resulting in failure to gain maximum performance" (AFH 10-6). Go shallower than 30° and you take so long to complete the turn that the airplane runs out of airspeed first — the error "initial bank too shallow resulting in a stall" (AFH 10-6). Thirty degrees is the balance point the standard settles on (CA.V.C.S4).

Division of attention (CA.V.C.R1) is genuinely hard here because the airplane never settles: pitch, bank, airspeed, and rudder are all changing at once. Give each a place in the scan:

• Outside, continuously — pitch attitude against the horizon and the wings' relationship to it. This is an outside maneuver; the AFH's common-error list includes performing it by reference to the instruments and failing to scan for traffic (AFH 10-6).
• At the 90° point — one deliberate check: bank still approximately 30°, pitch at maximum, airspeed decreasing.
• Through the second 90° — heading, so the rollout rate stays constant and the wings arrive level at 180° ±10° (CA.V.C.S7).

Disorientation and distraction (CA.V.C.R4) show up at the top, where you're nose-high, slow, and steadily rolling — the attitude in which pilots most often lose the horizon. Two defenses: pick a prominent reference 180° from your entry heading before you start, so the rollout target is a place and not a number, and treat any loss of the horizon as a reason to lower the nose and level the wings rather than to keep hunting for the reference. A missed maneuver is a repeat; a departure at minimum airspeed is not (CA.V.C.R3).

A chandelle has a shrinking radius as it progresses — airspeed drops at a fixed bank, so rate of turn increases and radius decreases (AFH 3-14; CA.V.C.R7). So it fits in less lateral space than you might expect, which is the point of the maneuver historically. But plan it anyway: know which way you'll turn, where the terrain and airspace boundaries are, and pick the entry heading so the 180° puts you somewhere useful — not toward a shelf of Class B or rising ground.

Treat it like any low-airspeed, high-power, uncoordinated upset: reduce AOA first — that's what restores control effectiveness — then level the wings with coordinated rudder and add power as needed to return to the desired flightpath. The 1,500-foot AGL floor (CA.V.C.S2) exists to give you the room. The specific trap here is that the recovery moment coincides with maximum right rudder demand (AFH 10-5); a pilot who runs out of right rudder and lets the nose yaw left at minimum airspeed is one uncoordinated pull from a spin entry (CA.V.C.R5).