Rolls

[Terry]

Hi All:

I am curious. How do you do a barrel roll.

How do you get the airplane to make a wide arc roll?

Thanks;

Terry

P.S> I am not trying it, just curious how it is done.

 

[TangoWhiskey]

This page describes how:

http://www.bruceair.com/Aerobatic_Intro.htm#BarrelRoll

 

[Terry]

Troy:

Thanks; That was neat!

Terry

 

[DeeG]

CFI I used to fly with did a barrel roll at the FAF on an IFR lesson once. I make my annoncement to the tower and the next thing I know I'm looking up at the ground. He did a pretty decent job of it, didn't even spill my soda.

I always thtough that if you rolled a typical GA plane, it would fall out of the sky.

 

[Henning]

Hi All:

I am curious. How do you do a barrel roll.

How do you get the airplane to make a wide arc roll?

Thanks;

Terry

P.S> I am not trying it, just curious how it is done.

Depends on how much horsepower you have. If you have a high power/high energy plane you can enter from level flight, otherwise you're gonna have to dive for airspeed. You'll wanna be around the top of the green arc as this manuver does eat a bit of energy, lot's more than an aileron roll. So once energy is achieved, nose up smooth and swiftly to 45 up. As you're getting there you come in with aileron and rudder. Most people go left because the torque and precession factors are working in your favor. As your roll comes through 90 and you start going inverted you push out just like the top of a loop (remember, in a barrel roll, you are loopng the plane in lateral plane, wing tip to wing tip is making a loop, which makes keeping the nose and tail level like keeping the wings level in a regular loop. I hope I didn't confuse you with that, cause I kinda confused me saying it, it's easier to do than say) and as you rotate back through you come on back with it and stop it wings level at the bottom. I'm usually a bit heavy on the rudder when I do them, but they come out half-a$$ed ok. I'll never compete, but I have some fun.

 

[Areeda]

I think of it as part of a family of lazy eights, wing overs and barrel rolls. In the lazy 8 you're about 45° bank at the 90° point. In a wing over you're 90° and a barrel roll you're 180°.

The cool thing about the barrel roll is the world is rotating around you in all 3 dimensions, it's a 1G maneuver so the body sensations are very normal while the visual picture is well confusing at least at first.

I learned to do them from an ex Canadian Air Force instructor. The first one he complimented me on how well it worked and all I could say was WTF just happened.

Joe

 

[gismo]

I think of it as part of a family of lazy eights, wing overs and barrel rolls. In the lazy 8 you're about 45° bank at the 90° point. In a wing over you're 90° and a barrel roll you're 180°.

When I first tried a barrel roll I didn't realize that the heading of the airplane changes quite a bit during the roll because that tidbit wasn't mentioned in the texts I had read. You end up on the same heading but at the 180 point (like in a lazy 8) you are pointed well off the initial and final heading. You also end up displaced laterally a fair amount, something eles I misunderstood.

 

[Bill]

When I first tried a barrel roll I didn't realize that the heading of the airplane changes quite a bit during the roll because that tidbit wasn't mentioned in the texts I had read. You end up on the same heading but at the 180 point (like in a lazy 8) you are pointed well off the initial and final heading. You also end up displaced laterally a fair amount, something eles I misunderstood.

While I did fairly decent barrel rolls during my aerobatics course, I still can't see in my minds eye what the whole thing looks like. Weird.

 

[Bill]

Depends on how much horsepower you have. If you have a high power/high energy plane you can enter from level flight, otherwise you're gonna have to dive for airspeed.

Learning in the Citabria taught me a lot about energy management. (you aren't going to get much from the engine)

 

[gismo]

While I did fairly decent barrel rolls during my aerobatics course, I still can't see in my minds eye what the whole thing looks like. Weird.

I think that if you "flew" a stick model by hand and pay close attention to the lift vector (remember that since it's a coordinated maneuver, the plane will be turning whenever it's banked with the max turn rate occurring in a 90 degree bank) you can "see" the approximate flight path that's required. A pair of pencils for fuselage and wings held together with a rubberband will do.