Flight Instructor for Airplane Category › IX. Performance and Ground Reference Maneuvers › Task F. Eights on Pylons (ASEL, ASES)

AI.IX.F.S2

Skill

Determine the approximate pivotal altitude.

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Get a short, cited explanation of this element written from the FAA handbooks: the core idea, the numbers that matter, common test traps, and a quick self-check.

From the FAA library

Airplane Flying Handbook p. 7-14
Chapter 7: Ground Reference Maneuvers › Elementary Eights › Eights on Pylons
little variation in the visual reference lines for different people, if those people are seated with their eyes at approximately the same level. Therefore, in the correct performance of eights on pylons, as in other maneuvers requiring a lateral reference ... lateral axis of the airplane. Figure 7-11. Line of sight. The altitude that is appropriate for eights on pylons is called the “pivotal altitude” and is determined by the airplane's groundspeed. In previous ground-track maneuvers, the airplane…
Airplane Flying Handbook p. 7-13
Chapter 7: Ground Reference Maneuvers › Elementary Eights › Eights Around Pylons
Eights Around Pylons Eights around pylons is a ground reference maneuver with the same principles and techniques of correcting for wind drift as used in turns around a point and the same objectives as other ground track maneuvers. Eights around ... pylons utilizes two ground reference points called “pylons.” Turns around each pylon are made in opposite directions to follow a ground track in the form of a figure 8. [Figure 7-9] Figure 7-9. Eights around pylons. The pattern…