DmitriKozlowsky Posted October 29, 2021 Posted October 29, 2021 I am just not getting how to barrel roll. My barrel roll attempts turn into normal aileron roll or to degenerate into nose down spiral. I suck, and I am not understanding the situation. 1. Pick reference 45 degree of nose. What reference? Is it sun, mountain peak,a bridge, a building. I tried all of those. 2. Pitch up to desired angle. What is the desired angle? What should it be? No answer on YT aviation school videos. 3. Begin rolling. OK seems simple enough. 4.Adjust inputs to roll smoothly. 5. Once inverted, heading should be offset by 90 deg. That is proving impossible for me. Never happens. Now what I do. 6. Finish on original heading and altitude. HUH? So from begging to mid roll inverted I turn 90, and from mod roll to finish I turn -90. I think is like, for snapping fingers. I am physically unable to snap my fingers. I can be shown thousands of times, and have, and cant do it. Similar for barrel roll, no matter what technique and timing I try to use, nothing works for me. Practicing is not effective, as I do not understand the technique for this maneuver. Very frustrating.
GGTharos Posted October 29, 2021 Posted October 29, 2021 (edited) 1. Any reference. It doesn't matter if it's a cloud, ground, the point is that you have something to look at and 'roll around'. Really it's more like 'pick a reference', you don't need it to be 45 deg off. 2. I don't recall off hand. You don't need to pitch up, but if you don't you'll end up losing altitude. Start with 5 degrees, see if you need more later. 3. Yeah seems simple enough, but great job on the instructions missing the full thing - here you're blending aileron and pitch input together. You blend 'as required' so that you're not in an aileron roll (so you need back-stick here) while at the same time not pulling insane g's (unless you need to). Adjust roll and pitch to maintain your reference in #1 in the same relative place. They're describing some sort of perfect 1g-ish barrel roll here. It's nice to learn because it teaches you how to fly precisely, but that's about it. You can do a 1g barrel roll, you can do a 9g barrel roll too ... it all depends on what you're trying to accomplish. Edited October 29, 2021 by GGTharos 1 [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC] Reminder: SAM = Speed Bump :D I used to play flight sims like you, but then I took a slammer to the knee - Yoda
Stearmandriver Posted October 30, 2021 Posted October 30, 2021 (edited) A proper barrel roll is like a rolling circle - easy to describe, but it requires great familiarity with the airplane to do well. In the competition acro world where this precision is graded, it is ideally a continuous roll combined with a continuous smooth pull, so it's almost like doing a loop and a roll at the same time. There should be no pauses or dramatic rate changes in either the pitch or roll; they should both be smooth and continuous. No reason why it couldn't be done in a hornet, but a warbird or the christen eagle might be better choices, just because the barrel roll is a classic "barnstormer" sort of maneuver. To me it just feels better in a biplane, but then I'm biased... For a reference point, I always choose something that's on my wingtip and near the horizon, and that's how I've always taught it too. I've heard the 45 degree reference point technique too and it's just personal preference, but I prefer to pick a point that I'm rolling/pulling towards so that I can gauge my progress and therefore adjust roll rate so I arrive at inverted with my nose right above my reference and starting down. Then my focus shifts back to a reference point on my original heading. It's tough to explain in text, but I'll bet you can find YouTube video of it from a head-mounted gopro, and it'll make perfect sense then. Don't beat yourself up because it's hard. It's SUPPOSED to be hard. ; ) Edited October 30, 2021 by Stearmandriver
Recommended Posts