Gary Drescher wrote:
"Alan Gerber" wrote in message
...
K l e i n wrote:
I think the appropriate maneuver for this situation from the Commercial
Pilot syllabus would be half of a lazy-8.

What about an Immelman? (Granted, not from the Commercial syllabus.) Or
would it require too much altitude?

Several reasons for them not to have used an Immelman:
1) it's a aerobatic maneuver for which the plane was not certified;
2) the pilots were likely untrained to perform such an aerobatic
maneuver;
3) many first attempts at an Immelman turn into an Immel-spin.

Why not a simple steep turn? It's easy to pre-calculate the turn radius for
a given airspeed, bank angle, and crosswind component. In this case, they
had plenty of room if they'd planned and executed the turn properly.

They tried and failed to perform a simple steep turn because they
apparently did not precalculate the maneuver.
The PIC was a PP and presumably not yet schooled in the lazy-8, however
the CFI obviously possessed a Commercial ticket and presumably was
schooled in this maneuver. The lazy-8 is not an aerobatic maneuver and
the Cirrus would have been capable of performing it.

Klein
p.s. I have performed lots of lazy-8's in aircraft ranging from
gliders to Turbo Commanders. The maneuver is easy, beautiful and lots
of fun. Go do some today (take an instructor along).