Barrel roll?

Jeanie

Jeanie

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Jeanie
How do you do a barrel roll? No tea needs to be poured for this. :D
 
I'm sure you'll get all kinds of opinions, but here is how I do them:

-Pick a reference point 90deg of your start heading in the direction you want to roll.
-Start the pitch-up and then the roll once the nose comes above the horizon, and basically fly the nose to end up inverted, pointed at your ref point.
-Continue through to bring the nose back to where you started.

Basically the stick starts back, then back with a little aileron. As the maneuver progresses, you'll need more aileron and less elevator to the inverted point. Then the reverse back to the start, i.e.: less aileron and more back pressure.

I normally explain it with an airplane on a stick, which makes it a little easier :)
 
It's a vertical version of the Lazy 8, in that the back stick pressure and co-ordinated aileron/rudder moves to increasing aileron and easing off the rudder, then to wing up (top); easing off the back pressure (continued aileron) until the nose down; then ease off the ailerons and add rudder in the last 90 degrees.

Agree with acro about the visual reference- if you don't have that you get lost quickly.

Everything is always changing.
Don't try this alone for the first time....
 
Go to Google, and type in, "do a barrel roll".

Ron Wanttaja
 
Jean - a barrel roll can be whatever you want it to be. No such thing as one "right" way to do them. A barrel roll is simply a roll where the CG of the airplane describes some degree of corkscrewing flight path through the air. A plain old positive G aileron roll is technically a barrel roll...just a very tight one, with limited pitch and heading excursions. But barrelling is still present during a 1G aileron roll. Or you could barrel it such that the airplane is 90 degrees off heading at the top with large altitude deviations...and anywhere in between. It's all barrel roll.

A full barrel roll is not a competition figure, but you can still do them with competition precision. A quarter clover is a competition figure, and is basically half a barrel roll, either up or down. Blend two halves of an up/down clover together perfectly, and you could actually have a standard for precision when doing barrel rolls.

For example, a quarter clover up consists of pitching the airplane up from level flight while perfectly integrating roll such that the airplane flies a round profile upwards while finishing a half roll simultaneous with reaching both the inverted level attitude AND a perfect 90 degree heading displacement. From there, it's just a half loop down, ending 90 degrees from your original heading. The goal is to evenly integrate the pitch and roll such that there is no pitching or rolling without both occuring at an even rate. Roll rate should be constant, and the roll should stop concurrent with reaching the inverted attitude, and 90 degrees off heading. Fairly challenging to do perfectly.

A quarter clover down is the same concept, reversed. Fly a normal round half loop up, and immediately upon reaching the inverted level attitude, start a roll that perfectly integrates with the second half of the loop such that you simultaneously reach level flight, wings level, and 90 degrees from your entry heading. Finish the roll before you have pitched to level flight, or reach level pitch attitude before finishing the roll, and you've done something wrong. Again, put two clover halves together, and you've got a precision barrel roll. Anyway, just gives you something challenging to work on rather than just boring holes in the sky, if you're into that sort of thing...which I know you are. :) BTW, I hate when the word "barreled" shows up on my score sheets. :D A quarter clover down actually showed up on the Sportsman Known a few years ago. It was such an oddball figure that almost nobody did them very well during their flights.

acropilot said:
Start the pitch-up and then the roll once the nose comes above the horizon...
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Technique-wise, the only thing I'll add is that if you're considering the first half of the barell roll to essentially be flown like the first half of a quarter clover up, then you do not want to wait until the nose has pitched up to start the roll. The objective is to evenly and simultaneously integrate pitch and roll. You don't do any degree of one without the other. It's a coordinated figure, meaning the ball should be centered throughout. If you're rolling left, it'll require constant left rudder, but the degree of input changes due to the constantly changing AoA during the looping component...which of course affects the amount of adverse yaw present. You're at the lowest AoA over the top, so as mentioned, you'll be using the least amount of rudder at this point. Pick up Alan Cassidy's book, 'Better Aerobatics'. Absolutely THE best acro book out there, and covers the very basics up through Unlimited figures and competition flying in outstanding detail.
 
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Jean - one final note about airspeed control and safety...if you don't complete the half roll upon reaching the apex of the looping segment, you're gonna blow out the bottom off heading, too fast, and too low. I know you're going to be doing this altitude, and that you've had sufficient training to do this on your own. Not that you would, but it's not something you want to do at low altitude. There was a fatal Yak 52 crash in Alabama last week involving a low-altitude formation barrel roll attempt where the pilot went off heading, pulled too hard on the backside, stalled the airplane and killed his 17 yr old passenger along with himself. These kinds of crashes really burn me up. No excuse for such an acro 101 screw up, this low to the ground, but most importantly WITH a passenger. To me it sounded like the classic mistake of being too late completing the half roll...in other words too much pitching without enough rolling, which sets you up for problems in the second half.
 
Thanks. Actually I'm pretty good at messing up loops by being off heading :). Now I get to try it on purpose....
I have cassidys book and also Fly For Fun which I think has barrel rolls in it.

Safety wise I always practice WAY UP HIGH ... I like to have plenty of room between me and the ground in case of botched maneuvers and Oh,**** moments. I'm the queen at power, push and roll bail outs. And I have learned how to recover from inverted spins and weird almost inverted things. I'm actually getting to the point where I enjoy it and can practice solo now without being as afraid of messing up. The unusual attitude practice with my friend helped as did training for the hammerfest.
 
whifferdill said:
Technique-wise, the only thing I'll add is that if you're considering the first half of the barell roll to essentially be flown like the first half of a quarter clover up, then you do not want to wait until the nose has pitched up to start the roll. The objective is to evenly and simultaneously integrate pitch and roll. You don't do any degree of one without the other. It's a coordinated figure, meaning the ball should be centered throughout. If you're rolling left, it'll require constant left rudder, but the degree of input changes due to the constantly changing AoA during the looping component...which of course affects the amount of adverse yaw present. You're at the lowest AoA over the top, so as mentioned, you'll be using the least amount of rudder at this point. Pick up Alan Cassidy's book, 'Better Aerobatics'. Absolutely THE best acro book out there, and covers the very basics up through Unlimited figures and competition flying in outstanding detail.
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Exactly, I am used to flying it out of a dive so the what I really meant was to start the rolling when the nose is level with the horizon. I did also omit the rudder in my first post, it is most definitely a coordinated maneuver.
 
badu8u3u.jpg
 
Diana said:
Jeanie, that's a good question. :D

Here is a thread I started a few years ago. Might be some helpful information in that one.

BTW, I miss Dudley's input here.
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~~~~. Thanks, Diana, yes, I've wondered where Dudley is.
I just finished reading the the thread. What good info. :yes:
 
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Seanaldinho said:
Roger Buis, neat guy.

His wife was my english teacher in middle school :)
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Got to talk to him briefly twice at the hotel this weekend, complemented his very smooth flying. Seemed like a very nice guy. Very appreciative that the Grand Junction airshow folks invited him. Said the density altitude was a challenge.
 
Here's a section from my RAF manual about barrel rolls. I've only done them with an instructor. He used the 90 degree off the nose reference point not what's described in my manual. The manual recommends picking a point in front of the plane, turning away from it and then turn back and past the reference point.
 

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Interesting the speeds are in Knots.

Dave, I think I saw you flying around KWWD this summer when I flew down there. Not too many Chipmunks around.
 
Anthony said:
Interesting the speeds are in Knots.

Dave, I think I saw you flying around KWWD this summer when I flew down there. Not too many Chipmunks around.
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I'm sure it must have been me. There are two others in the area. One is at Van Sant and the other is at New Garden.

edit - oops, I uploaded a copyrighted photo of a good looking panel. I changed it to a photo of my panel when I bought the plane showing the "air knot" label on the airspeed gauge.
 

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