The commercial pilot practical test adds five maneuvers that a private pilot has never flown: the steep spiral, the chandelle, the lazy eight, eights on pylons, and steep turns at 50 degrees of bank instead of 45. Add the power-off 180 accuracy landing and you have the whole of what makes a commercial checkride different in the air, and all of it is judged against the Commercial Pilot Airman Certification Standards rather than against how the maneuver felt to you.
None of these five are difficult in the way that a first landing is difficult. They are difficult in a different way: each one asks you to hold several things true at once, continuously, while the airplane is changing pitch, bank, airspeed and power at the same time. That is precisely the point. The FAA is not testing whether you can fly a chandelle, because nobody flies chandelles for a living. It is testing whether you can fly the airplane precisely and smoothly enough to be trusted with a paying passenger. If you are still working out what the certificate itself involves, start with our commercial pilot license training in Los Angeles, which covers the course, the hours and the price.
This page is the maneuver-by-maneuver detail: what each one is for, how it is flown, what the ACS tolerances are, where students lose points, and how we teach them in the Piper Arrow and the Diamond DA20 at Van Nuys.
What The Commercial ACS Adds To The Private Pilot Set
The commercial maneuvers live in the Performance Maneuvers and Ground Reference Maneuvers area of operation in the Commercial Pilot ACS. Two of them, the chandelle and the lazy eight, are performance maneuvers flown by reference to the horizon. Two of them, eights on pylons and the steep spiral, are ground reference maneuvers flown by reference to a point on the ground. Steep turns you already know, but the bank angle goes up and the tolerances do not move.
The single biggest change from the private pilot test is not the maneuvers themselves. It is that the ACS expects a commercial applicant to fly with a smoothness and a level of anticipation that a private pilot is not asked for. A chandelle flown with the right numbers but with visible corrections, power surges and a lurch at the top will not pass on the numbers alone. Examiners talk about this as "mastery of the aircraft", and it is a real standard, not a euphemism.
Here are the tolerances, gathered in one place. Fly to the revision of the ACS that is in force on your test date, because the FAA updates it and your examiner will be testing against the current document.
| Maneuver | What It Demonstrates | Key Tolerances | Altitude Discipline |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steep turns | Coordination and trim at high load factor | 50 degrees of bank plus or minus 5 degrees; altitude plus or minus 100 ft; airspeed plus or minus 10 kt; rollout heading plus or minus 10 degrees | Entry altitude held throughout |
| Steep spiral | Gliding descent around a point with changing wind correction | At least three 360-degree turns; bank not exceeding 60 degrees; airspeed plus or minus 10 kt; rollout heading plus or minus 10 degrees | Complete no lower than 1,500 ft AGL |
| Chandelle | Maximum performance climbing turn, 180 degrees of heading change | Approximately 30 degrees of bank; rollout at the 180-degree point plus or minus 10 degrees; finish just above stall speed without stalling | Begin no lower than 1,500 ft AGL |
| Lazy eight | Continuously changing pitch, bank and airspeed with constant coordination | Approximately 30 degrees of bank at the steepest point; at each 180-degree point, altitude plus or minus 100 ft, airspeed plus or minus 10 kt, heading plus or minus 10 degrees | Begin no lower than 1,500 ft AGL |
| Eights on pylons | Division of attention and instinctive use of pivotal altitude | Bank approximately 30 to 40 degrees at the steepest point; the pylon held with the correct pivotal altitude and wind correction | Pylon selection governed by 14 CFR 91.119 minimum safe altitudes |
| Power-off 180 accuracy landing | Energy management to a spot without power | Touch down at or within 200 ft beyond the specified point, on the centreline, in a normal landing attitude | Abeam the point at traffic pattern altitude |
The Chandelle: A Maximum Performance Climbing Turn
A chandelle is a 180-degree climbing turn that converts airspeed into the greatest possible altitude gain for that heading change. You enter at a speed at or below the manufacturer's recommended entry speed, roll into about 30 degrees of bank, and then over the first 90 degrees you raise the nose progressively while holding the bank constant. At the 90-degree point the pitch attitude is at its maximum and the bank is still 30 degrees. Over the second 90 degrees the pitch attitude stays where it is and you roll the wings level at a constant rate, arriving wings level exactly on the reciprocal heading, at an airspeed just above the stall, without stalling. Then you lower the nose and resume level flight with minimum loss of altitude.
How The Chandelle Is Flown
Clear the area with two 90-degree clearing turns and pick a prominent ground reference off the wingtip so you can see the 90-degree point without staring at the heading indicator. Set the entry speed and, in a constant-speed propeller aircraft, set the propeller to the high RPM position. Roll smoothly to 30 degrees. Apply climb power as you begin the pitch-up. From wings level to the 90-degree point, the nose comes up steadily; it should never jump. At the 90-degree point, stop the pitch change and begin the rollout. Because the airspeed is decaying the whole way, right rudder pressure has to keep increasing to hold coordination, and the ball, not the seat of your trousers, is the judge of that.
What The Examiner Is Watching
Three things, mostly. Whether the bank really is constant through the first half, whether the pitch attitude really is constant through the second half, and whether the airplane arrives at the 180-degree point wings level and slow at the same moment. A chandelle where the wings come level early and the airplane wallows the last 20 degrees of heading is the most common failure, and it is obvious from the right seat. Directional control with rudder as the airspeed falls is the second most common, and it is the one that makes an otherwise good chandelle look untidy.
Where Chandelles Go Wrong
Pitching up too fast in the first 30 degrees leaves nothing to give for the rest of the climb and puts you slow too early. Letting the bank drift past 30 degrees makes the turn faster than the climb, so you reach the heading before the airspeed is where it needs to be. Forgetting that the rollout is a constant rate, not a late scramble, is the third. If you finish with the stall warning howling and the nose still swinging, you were behind the airplane from the 90-degree point onward. The fix is almost always to slow the first half down.
The Lazy Eight: The Hardest Easy Maneuver
The lazy eight looks gentle from the ground and is the maneuver most commercial students spend the longest on. It is two opposing 180-degree turns in which pitch and bank change continuously and in step, so that the airplane traces a pair of shallow loops against the horizon. Nothing is ever constant: pitch, bank, airspeed, altitude and turn rate are all changing at every instant, and the only thing you hold steady is the rate at which they change.
How The Lazy Eight Is Flown
Pick a prominent reference point on the horizon off the wingtip. Enter at the manufacturer's recommended entry speed, which for many trainers is maneuvering speed or a little below. Begin a climbing turn toward the reference. At the 45-degree point the pitch attitude is at its steepest and the bank is about 15 degrees. At the 90-degree point the nose is passing through the horizon on the way down, the bank is at its maximum of about 30 degrees, the airspeed is at its minimum and the altitude at its maximum. At the 135-degree point the nose is at its lowest and the bank is reducing. At the 180-degree point the airplane is wings level, at the entry altitude plus or minus 100 ft, at the entry airspeed plus or minus 10 kt, on the reciprocal heading plus or minus 10 degrees. Then you do it again in the other direction without pausing.
Where Lazy Eights Go Wrong
Almost every bad lazy eight is a symmetry problem. The first half is flown well and the second half is rushed, so the airplane arrives at the 180-degree point low and fast. Or the two loops are different sizes because the wind is moving the airplane relative to the reference point and the student is chasing the point rather than flying the attitudes. The other classic is using the bank to control the heading change instead of letting the pitch and bank combination produce it, which gives a lazy eight with a flat, mechanical feel and a bank that is 30 degrees for a suspiciously long time. Fly the attitudes, check the numbers at the 180-degree points, and let the eight draw itself.
Eights On Pylons And Pivotal Altitude
Eights on pylons is the maneuver that most rewards understanding and most punishes memorisation. You fly a figure eight around two ground reference points, and instead of holding a constant radius you hold the airplane at the altitude where a line extended from your eye through the wingtip appears to pivot on the pylon. That altitude is not a number you choose. It is dictated by your groundspeed, and because groundspeed changes constantly as you turn through the wind, the altitude you need changes constantly too.
The Pivotal Altitude Formula
Pivotal altitude in feet above the ground equals the groundspeed in knots squared, divided by 11.3. In miles per hour, the divisor is 15. The arithmetic is worth doing in your head before the flight, because the examiner will ask.
| Groundspeed | Calculation | Pivotal Altitude Above Ground |
|---|---|---|
| 80 kt | 6,400 divided by 11.3 | Approximately 566 ft |
| 90 kt | 8,100 divided by 11.3 | Approximately 717 ft |
| 100 kt | 10,000 divided by 11.3 | Approximately 885 ft |
| 110 kt | 12,100 divided by 11.3 | Approximately 1,071 ft |
| 120 kt | 14,400 divided by 11.3 | Approximately 1,274 ft |
Two things fall straight out of that table. First, pivotal altitude for a light trainer sits low, which is why eights on pylons are flown over open country away from people and structures and why 14 CFR 91.119 minimum safe altitudes drive the choice of pylons as much as the geometry does. Second, the difference between the upwind and downwind sides of the eight is large. A 20-knot spread in groundspeed around the turn can move the required altitude by two hundred feet or more, and you have to fly that change smoothly, not in steps.
How The Maneuver Is Flown
Choose two pylons roughly at right angles to the wind, far enough apart that you can fly three to five seconds of straight and level between them. Enter downwind between the pylons at the approximate pivotal altitude for your entry groundspeed. Bank toward the first pylon and then stop flying the airplane by the numbers and start flying it by the pylon. If the pylon appears to move ahead of the wingtip reference line, you are too low and must climb. If it appears to move behind, you are too high and must descend. You make these corrections with pitch, holding the bank, and you make them continuously and in small amounts.
Where Eights On Pylons Go Wrong
The commonest error is correcting with bank instead of altitude, which produces an eight that stays on the pylon in an ugly, skidding way and is immediately visible on the ball. The second is treating pivotal altitude as a single number for the whole maneuver, which makes the airplane creep off the pylon on the downwind side. The third is a poor pylon choice: pylons too close together leave no straight segment, pylons aligned with the wind make the two halves wildly different, and pylons over a built-up area are a regulatory problem before they are a flying problem.
The Steep Spiral
A steep spiral is a constant-radius gliding turn around a ground reference point, at least three full 360-degree turns, with the power at idle and the airspeed held within 10 knots of the target. It is the only commercial maneuver that has an obvious real-world application: it is how you lose a lot of altitude over a chosen field after an engine failure while keeping that field in sight.
The bank may not exceed 60 degrees, and in practice it varies constantly through each turn because the constant ground radius demands a steeper bank downwind and a shallower one upwind. Airspeed control with the nose while the bank is changing is the skill being tested, and it is where the points go. A steep spiral flown at a constant bank will not be a constant radius, and a steep spiral flown at a constant radius without attention to airspeed will accelerate downwind and drift toward the never-exceed end of the airspeed indicator. Complete the maneuver no lower than 1,500 ft AGL, level off on the specified heading, and remember to clear the engine periodically during the descent so it is warm and responsive when you need it.
Commercial Steep Turns At 50 Degrees
You flew steep turns for the private certificate at 45 degrees. The commercial standard is 50 degrees, plus or minus 5, with altitude within 100 ft, airspeed within 10 kt and the rollout heading within 10 degrees. Those five extra degrees matter more than they sound. Load factor at 45 degrees of bank is about 1.41 g; at 50 degrees it is about 1.56 g, and at 55 degrees it is 1.74. The stall speed rises with the square root of the load factor, the induced drag rises sharply, and the amount of back pressure and power needed to hold altitude goes up with it. Trim, then hold with pressure, and do not chase the altimeter with bank.
The Power-Off 180 Accuracy Landing
Abeam your chosen touchdown point at traffic pattern altitude, the throttle comes to idle and stays there. From that moment you are managing a fixed quantity of energy to a fixed point on the runway, using only pitch, flap selection and the shape of the pattern. Touchdown must be at or within 200 feet beyond the specified point, on the centreline, in a normal landing attitude.
The maneuver teaches something genuinely valuable: that a light airplane's glide is a resource you spend, and that once spent it does not come back. Students who fly it well tend to be the ones who accept early that the first notch of flap is a commitment and who use the base turn, not the flaps, as the primary adjustment. Students who struggle usually add flap too early, arrive low, and then discover that there is nothing left to give. In the Arrow, gear position is one more variable in that equation, and one more chance to be early or late.
How We Teach These In The Arrow And The DA20
We fly commercial maneuvers in two very different airplanes, and the difference is deliberate.
The Piper Arrow PA-28R, tail number N316EF, is the complex airplane: 200 hp Lycoming IO-360, retractable landing gear, constant-speed propeller and a Garmin 430. It is the airplane in which you will log the 10 hours of complex, turbine or technically advanced time required by 14 CFR 61.129(a)(3)(ii), and it is a steady, heavy-feeling platform for chandelles and lazy eights. The extra mass smooths out small control errors, which is comfortable early on and unhelpful later, because it hides the untidiness the examiner will see.
The Diamond DA20-C1, N306EF and N308EF, is the opposite: 125 hp, a control stick, a bubble canopy and very little inertia. Everything you do with your hands shows up immediately. Students who can fly a clean lazy eight in the DA20 find the Arrow easy. It is also certificated in the utility category and is the airplane we use for spin training, which matters if you are heading on to a CFI spin endorsement afterwards.
| Item | Package Rate (Inside A Course) | Retail Rate (Pay As You Go) |
|---|---|---|
| Piper Arrow PA-28R, per hour | $229 | $349 |
| Diamond DA20-C1, per hour | $229 | $329 |
| Piper Warrior PA-28-161, per hour | $179 | $269 |
| Flight instruction, per hour | $110 | |
| Ground instruction, per hour | $110 | |
| Redbird MCX full-motion simulator, per hour | $120 | $200 |
| Commercial Pilot course | $15,400 | |
| Complex endorsement in the Arrow | $999 | |
Our Commercial Pilot course is $15,400 and covers 30 hours of aircraft time, 20 hours of simulator, 50 hours of dual and 30 hours of ground across a 130-hour program. The full breakdown sits on the commercial pilot license cost page.
A Practice Order That Works
Maneuvers are cheapest to learn in the right sequence. We teach steep turns first, because 50 degrees of bank rebuilds the trim and power habits everything else depends on. Chandelles come next, because a chandelle is essentially the first half of a lazy eight with the bank held constant, and it teaches the rudder discipline that decaying airspeed demands. Lazy eights follow. Eights on pylons come after that, because the maneuver needs enough spare capacity to divide attention between the pylon and the airplane, and that capacity only exists once the airborne maneuvers are automatic. Steep spirals and power-off 180s sit alongside the whole sequence, since both are really engine-out energy management and both benefit from being flown often rather than intensively.
Two practical notes. Fly the whole set every lesson once you know them, even badly, rather than drilling one to perfection: the checkride asks for all of them in one flight on one day. And use the Redbird MCX for the mental pattern before you use the airplane for the muscle memory. The simulator will not teach you the feel of a chandelle, but it will make the sequence, the power settings and the reference points automatic for a fraction of the hourly cost.
Related Reading
- Commercial pilot license training in Los Angeles — the course, the hours and how training is structured at Van Nuys.
- Commercial pilot license requirements under 14 CFR 61.129 — every hour the regulation asks for.
- Maneuvering speed (Va) explained — the entry speed for lazy eights, and why it changes with weight.
- Piper Arrow PA-28R — specifications and performance for the complex trainer.
- CFI spin endorsement and spin training in the Diamond DA20 — the next step after commercial for most people.
- Simulator hours that count toward your certificate — what the Redbird MCX is creditable for.
Commercial Pilot Maneuvers FAQ
What Are The Commercial Pilot Maneuvers?
Steep turns at 50 degrees of bank, the steep spiral, the chandelle, the lazy eight and eights on pylons, plus the power-off 180 accuracy landing. They are grouped in the performance and ground reference areas of operation of the Commercial Pilot ACS.
What Is Pivotal Altitude And How Do You Calculate It?
Pivotal altitude is the height above the ground at which a line from your eye through the wingtip appears to pivot on a ground point. It equals groundspeed in knots squared divided by 11.3, or miles per hour squared divided by 15. At 100 knots groundspeed that is approximately 885 feet above the ground.
What Bank Angle Is A Chandelle Flown At?
Approximately 30 degrees, held constant from the entry to the 90-degree point, after which the rollout begins at a constant rate so the wings are level at the 180-degree point within 10 degrees of the reciprocal heading.
Why Is The Lazy Eight So Difficult?
Because nothing in it is constant. Pitch, bank, airspeed, altitude and turn rate all change continuously, and the only thing you hold steady is the rate at which they change. Most poor lazy eights are symmetry problems rather than control problems.
What Is The Tolerance For The Power-Off 180 Landing?
Touchdown at or within 200 feet beyond the specified point, on the runway centreline, in a normal landing attitude, with the throttle at idle from the abeam position.
Do You Need A Complex Airplane For The Commercial Checkride?
You need 10 hours of training in a complex, turbine-powered or technically advanced airplane under 14 CFR 61.129(a)(3)(ii), but the single-engine practical test itself does not have to be flown in a complex airplane. We use the Piper Arrow for that requirement and for the complex endorsement.
How Many Hours Of Maneuver Practice Do Most Students Need?
It varies with how often you fly and how solid your private pilot airmanship is. Students who fly twice a week generally polish the whole set in far fewer hours than students who fly twice a month, because these maneuvers decay quickly between lessons.
Can Commercial Maneuvers Be Practised In A Simulator?
The Redbird MCX is useful for the sequence, the power settings and the reference points, and up to 50 hours of simulator time is creditable toward the commercial certificate. It will not teach you the feel of a chandelle or the sight picture of a pylon, so the airplane still does the real work.
Fly Your Commercial Maneuvers At Van Nuys
If you already hold a private certificate and are working toward commercial, call (818) 330-1318 and we will put you with an instructor who teaches these maneuvers every week, in the Arrow or the DA20 depending on what you need. If you are not there yet and want to see what flying an airplane actually feels like, a discovery flight is $229 for 60 minutes and you fly it from the left seat. You can also book a free consultation to map out the route from where you are to a commercial certificate. We are at 7900 Balboa Blvd, Van Nuys, CA 91406, open every day from 9 AM to 9 PM.