THE VERTICAL POINT/HESITATION ROLL

Client Air Show Pilot: Jim Saloga

Category (Basic, Advanced or Extreme): Advanced

In this video clip (below), Paul BJ Ransbury demonstrates the Vertical Point Roll to Jim. Jim comes to Fighter Combat as a proud participant of the Copperwynd Resort Adventure Package. The maneuver detailed on this page combines the precision of flying the vertical line with the performance of a rolling maneuver with hesitations at each 90 degrees of roll.

The image shown to the left is picture of the entry to the maneuver just prior to Jim initiating the vertical roll. Jim participated in our Weekend Adventurer Package that includes a Flight of Your Life Super Ride followed by an Advanced Air Combat Mission. Feel free to take a moment to learn how this maneuver is flown in the next paragraph or skip to the video below.

What’s Happening?The Vertical Point Roll (sometimes called The Vertical Hesitation Roll) is considered an advanced maneuver as it combines three basic maneuvers into one. Prior to being able to fly the maneuver properly, the pilot needs to be proficient in performing the following basic maneuvers: loop, vertical roll and hammerhead. We start this maneuver in level flight, with no less than 160 kts of airspeed, and then pull back on the stick with about 4 Gs, exactly as we start the hammerhead, right up until the aircraft achieves the 90 degree nose-up pitch attitude (meaning we’re pointing straight up as show in the picture above!) at which point the aircrafts rotation is briskly stopped. Once we achieve the vertical line in coordinated flight (no slip or skid), the aircraft is then rolled with coordinated aileron and rudder through a series of four 90 degree rolls with the aircraft stopping at the completion of each 90 degree segment while the fuselage of the aircraft is continuously maintained perpendicular to the horizon. For this maneuver to look really nice at an air show or aerobatic competition, the rate of roll of each segment should be exactly the same and the stops at the 90 degree points must be crisp and precisely oriented at each 90 degree point. At the completion of the fourth 90 degree roll, the aircraft is maintained in the vertical until it is “kicked over” into a hammerhead re-orienting the aircraft from pointing straight up to pointing straight down. Now, to give the maneuver symmetry, the aircraft is rolled on the vertical down-line through a series of four 90 degree hesitation rolls as the aircraft accelerates to recovery speed and alignment. When the maneuver is completed, it should be at the same altitude and airspeed as the entry but point 180 degrees in the opposite direction.

Watch the Video

In the aerobatic experience shown in the video below, the Flight of Your Life Super Ride, we follow a building-block technique of instruction that is a “show and do” profile allowing the client to fly each maneuver regardless of its complexity. If 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. Now come have a look at the Vertical Point Roll video clip – BJ flies the demo then has Jim do a similar more basic maneuver with a straight vertical roll without the 90 degree hesitations as a first step in learning the maneuver.

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