The Hammerhead

Client Air Show Pilot: Nils Hammon

Category (Basic, Advanced or Extreme): Basic

In this video clip (below), Paul BJ Ransbury demonstrates the Hammerhead to Nils who came to Fighter Combat International all the way from Germany with his wife Stephanie. They sure had fun today doing aerobatics and will be going head-to-head in our advanced air combat course on Thursday. Although Nils has a PhD in Physics, after watching his wife fly today, we’re not convinced it’s going to help him against her in air combat … the final results will speak for themselves

The image shown to the left is a clip from the left wingtip video camera.
What’s Happening?The first hammerhead flown in this clip is a demonstration by the instructor and the next two are flown by the student. The hammerhead is considered to be one of the more advanced basic aerobatic maneuvers. It is entered from level flight with approximately 160 knots of airspeed. The pilot initiates a wings level pull from straight and level flight to the pure vertical using anywhere between three and six “Gs”. Once the aircraft reaches the vertical, the pilot needs to “freeze” the flight attitude with small, almost imperceptible, movement of all three flight controls to hold the vertical line until the airspeed has decreased to a few knots above zero. Just before reaching zero airspeed, the pilot inputs full left rudder (slight right aileron and forward stick are required as well to correct for torque and gyroscopic effect) to cause the nose of the aircraft to go from pointing straight up to straight down in less than five seconds. The recovery involves applying right rudder to stop the yawing motion of the nose as it approaches the vertical-down position, centralizing the control stick and then allowing the aircraft to accelerate to approximately 120 knots prior to initiating the 4-G recovery to level flight. Ideally, the aircraft should recover to the same altitude and same airspeed but pointing 180 degrees in the opposite direction from the entry heading. Although the Hammerhead is sometimes referred to as the “Stall Turn”, a properly flown hammerhead does not cause the wing to stall at any point as the pilot is managing angle of attack throughout the maneuver. By not exceeding what is called “Critical Angle of Attack”, the pilot retains positive control of the aircraft at all times right down just above zero airspeed.

Talk about a fun way to turn around, huh?! The Hammerhead is a great maneuver for the aerobatic pilot to develop a feel for the aircraft. If you think you, or someone you know, would like this kind of flying then definitely consider participating in our Flight of Your Life program. No flight experience is required and this is NOT a simulator.

Important Note: Without exception, all mission profiles are “challenge by choice” at Fighter Combat International. We will not put anyone through any maneuver without their expressed permission and expressed desire to do so. Each mission profile follows a building block approach from basic maneuvers working towards the client’s self-determined limitations. The customer chooses, at each stage of the building block process, whether to keep it basic and gentle or to move progressively towards the extreme.