Roll Drills

This month for a change of pace I’ll give our newcomers some advice on how to improve their competition rolls.

A correct competition roll will be flown on a straight line, without apparent climb or descent, on a constant heading. A well flown competition roll will feel as if you are gently rolling about your belly button. If you are experiencing any kind of sliding around, or any sudden change of g in any direction during your roll practice, I can promise you it isn’t looking quite correct from the outside.

A competition roll is obviously primarily accomplished with the aileron, but the elevator is also extremely important. The rudder does its job as well, though most people overemphasize the importance of rudder. If you have the rudder in the correct position during the roll you will be applying pressure more than moving it.

Since it’s very hard to explain exactly how to fly a great competition roll, I will be sharing some drills that I’ve put together which have helped others. I created these drills for the Decathlon, but they work well for any airplane with an inverted system.

Be careful! Get good aerobatic training before you fly rolls, fly them very high until you are confident you can do them safely, and give yourself lots of space for these drills. Ideally you should find a place where you can fly a few miles over a road or railroad track for reference.

When you do these drills, always do them in both roll directions. A lot of people find rolling to the left easier than rolling to the right, but you’ll learn faster if you work in both directions. And intersperse some attempts at regular competition rolls in between the drills so you can measure your progress.

Drill #1: 6 Half Rolls

After you’ve learned how to fly a basic roll, the next step is to learn how to fly it without climbing or descending. I like using half rolls for this. Fly a straight line and use whatever roll rate you like. Roll to inverted and hold inverted flight for at least 3 seconds before rolling upright. This maneuver is called a “two-point roll”. Pause a bit then repeat until you’ve done three of these two-point rolls in succession. That’s the drill.

This drill shows you exactly where the nose needs to be at the midpoint of the roll.

Repeat the drill until you can do this without changing heading or altitude and until you are able to accomplish this with smooth elevator input that blends in and out as needed. It’s ok to adjust the roll rate to a comfortable level and increase it as you progress.

Drill #2: 3 Linked Rolls

After you can fly half rolls without climbing and diving like a lovestruck porpoise, you are ready to try linked rolls. In this drill you will fly 3 rolls in succession without stopping or changing the roll rate. It’s ok to pick a roll rate that suits you, but once you begin you must maintain that roll rate through the drill (but of course, you should stop rolling if you are losing altitude or getting dizzy).

What is great about this drill is any error in the roll technique gets magnified. For example, if you tend to change heading 10 degrees during a roll that might not be very noticeable. You might even be able to cover it up by mashing in a bunch of rudder. But if you link three rolls together you won’t be able to get away with that. I’ve seen pilots do a rolling turn the first time they try this exercise!

This is a good point to mention that if you are doing any of these drills and you are experiencing something you don’t like, stay curious about it. Covering up your defects will only hurt you in the long run. Whatever problem you have with your flying has a solution; I promise. Don’t let yourself get in a rut; use experimentation to find out what needs to change to make things better.

Drill #3: The Super Slow Roll

A super slow roll is one that takes at least 10 seconds to perform, but for this drill I like 16 seconds. The reason I like 16 seconds is because it divides easily so that we can count 4 seconds per quarter rotation.

I’m aware that 16 seconds seems impossibly long to new aerobatic pilots, especially in a plane like a Decathlon, but I assure you that it can be done.

Maintain a constant roll rate and count to yourself. Most people rush the second half of the roll, so don’t be surprised if you must work a bit to find the right control pressure needed to keep the roll rate constant.

As always, make sure your heading and altitude do not change. If you have trouble keeping the nose where it needs to be during knife edge flight, that means you did not use the elevator properly when you were leaving upright or level flight.

This drill can be challenging, but stick with it because if you want to fly great rolls you must learn to do them slow before you can do them fast.

Drill #4: The Rudderless Slow Roll

The idea of this drill is to fly the best competition roll you can using only aileron and elevator. Obviously, you will have to find a compromise here, but that’s the point: to find the best compromise possible. Do what you must with the controls and the flight path as long as you end the roll with the same heading and altitude you had at the beginning.

This drill seems impossible to many people when they first try it. I’ve heard a lot of people say “it can’t be done” but it can and with practice you will be able to show how!

For this exercise you want the roll to last at least 4 seconds. Slower is even better.

Some of you will recognize that the solution to this drill is a “barrel” roll, but keep in mind the idea is to make it look as close to a standard competition roll as possible.

Let Me Know How It Goes

Please reach out and let me know if these drills were helpful to you.