Originally Posted by
H Peacock
To be perfectly honest, I don't really get this 'bent' loop business. If you're after a small change in heading (he was) why not just make a very minor correction going over the top or even 3rd quarter to roll out pointing along the required datum. If you need a bigger change of heading, surely you put the roll in the upward vertical. Any errors in your roll will not make any change to the height that you then peak at, in addition, the fractional pause in your pull-up means you'll easily achieve you're apex gate height/speed. If you roll too early during the 1st quarter you're almost into barrel roll territory but with not enough height to half-loop out of.
It took me a couple of viewings of the video when it was first available to figure out what the maneuver was and moreover, what its purpose was. One shortcoming is that you roll away from the venue and put it behind you as a reference point for lineup, potentially delaying your increase in pull on the back side momentarily while you looked for it. If I was to bend a loop with a roll, I would prefer to do it on the back side so that the show-line runway was always in sight. However, if a low pass down the show line was to be made coming out of the loop, that would require displacing the initial run-in farther to the east, adding time between the opening pass and the next maneuver. It was also informative to see all the restrictions to altitudes and overflights on the map in the AAIB report, which may have dictated the bent loop as flown.