Flying the 2023 Sportsman Sequence - Part 8 – Flying the Hammerhead
The hammerhead maneuver is one of my favorites. It is fun to do and very satisfying when done well. It is also one of the harder maneuvers to teach and it can induce an inverted spin if mishandled. With that being said it is still one a junior aerobat can do well with just a little training, so let’s do it right and have fun!
All discussions about maneuvers in this column are geared for those doing recreational aerobatics as well as those who compete.
The hammerhead is also a maneuver that always generates a lot of discussion and re-thinking. It is a great thought exercise when analyzing it with someone who is new to aerobatics, as we discuss, which control does what on the vertical upline as well as in the pivot. The hammerhead can even be a good discussion about flight control inputs with those pilots who will not be doing aerobatics in the near future. It really gets the brain going in a different direction for those trained in the standard, “car-type driving” flight school.
As Emergency Maneuver Training guru Rich Stowell says; “…the flight controls work in relation to the pilot, not the horizon. Pitch, Roll, and Yaw are ‘attitude independent.’ Pitch is not nose up/nose down, and yaw is not left/right. Pitch is actually a head-to-foot motion of the tip of the nose. Yaw is an ear-to-ear motion of the tip of the nose. In Roll the wingtip moves from the pilots’ head to the pilots’ hip. These rules work in any attitude.” These statements are the key to understanding how to fly these maneuvers.
The hammerhead also zeros in on the important parts of 1972 World Champion Charlie Hillard’s “where to look and when” advice. He felt that if a pilot looked in the right place at the right time the maneuver in question was much easier to perform.
In this discussion, we’re in a left hammerhead with a (from the pilot’s perspective) clockwise-turning, or American, engine.
READ the 2019 Sport Aerobatics *Hammerhead article.
Articles in the "2023 Sportsman Sequence" Series
Flying the 2023 Sportsman Sequence by Gordon Penner, In the Loop January 2023
Flying the Wedge by Gordon Penner, In the Loop February 2023
Flying the Immelman, by Gordon Penner, In the Loop March 2023
Flying the Loop, by Gordon Penner, Sport Aerobatics December 2019
Flying the Half Cuban, by Gordon Penner, In the Loop May 2023
Flying the Humpty Bump, by Gordon Penner, In the Loop June 2023
Flying the Competition Roll, by Gordon Penner, In the Loop July 2023
Flying the Hammerhead, by Gordon Penner, In the Loop August 2023
Flying the Spin, by Gordon Penner, In the Loop September 2023
Flying the Aerobatic Turn, by Gordon Penner, In the Loop October 2023
Online Resources:
Introduction to Aresti, by Brian Howard, www.iac.org/aerobatic-figures
More articles on typical Sportsman category figures
Half Cubans, Accurate 45-degree downlines, by Giles Henderson, Sport Aerobatics June 2011, pg. 28
A Roll is a Roll is a Roll...., by Gordon Penner, Sport Aerobatics, August 2008, pg. 16
Aerobatic Trim Part 1, by Gordon Penner, Sport Aerobatics September 2020
Aerobatic Trim Part 2, by Gordon Penner, In the Loop October 2020
