The Elevator

The next maneuver that I'm going to go over is the Elevator. If you haven't read my article on the Harrier, please read that first, because I will refer to that article at least once in this article. Here goes!

The Elevator is a very easy maneuver to learn as long as you don't over control the aileron and rudder controls; everything else is pretty straight forward. First, start high. Start high whether you are a new pilot or not, because this is a descending maneuver.

So once you are up high, chop the throttle and let the plane slow. Then increase up elevator until you are at full up on high rates. The plane will most likely want to stall. If it drops a wing, add the opposite direction of aileron and rudder to correct the problem like mentioned in the harrier article.

The plane will most likely drop the nose as well, so to correct this, add a little bit of throttle. Just enough to keep the nose level or a little bit up; about 1/4 throttle should be enough. If you can get the nose up while doing this maneuver, it looks really cool, but don't get it above about a 20-30 degree nose up attitude, otherwise the plane will start to tail-slide and things will get ugly.

To exit the maneuver, simply add throttle and let off the elevator slowly. If you are exiting high, simply release the controls, let the plane stabilize itself, and pull out.

As far as CG goes for this maneuver tail heavy is the way to go. Refer to my article on CG for information on how to safely find a tail heavy CG.

Check out the video embedded below. I do many elevators in this clip, and transition right into a harrier or a hover. I normally do an elevater right after the maneuver called the "Enema" (yes that is its real name). An enema is that maneuver when I start inverted, pitch up at full throttle, then do a tumble and it exits spining upright around the canopy. (Doc invented that one)

I hope this has helped someone out there! Happy Flying!


3DHS Extra SHP Baby Don't You Do It! from Thomas Kitt on Vimeo.