Slow roll (aeronautics)

The maneuver is performed by rolling the airplane at a controlled rate with the ailerons, and moving the elevators and rudder in opposition, or "cross-controlling," to keep the plane on a steady, level flightpath.

At the midpoint of the roll, the pilot will be hanging upside-down by the seatbelt, and any loose debris in the cockpit will fall to the canopy or out of the plane.

As the airplane rolls past 45 degrees of bank, it will start to lose lift and the nose will begin to drop to the plane's side, so the pilot begins to apply rudder in the opposite direction (away from the bank) to hold the nose at a constant attitude, increasing the input as the plane rolls toward 90 degrees, while, at the same time, releasing elevator input.

In the wings-vertical position, the elevators should be neutral and attitude held by rudder alone, and the only lift generated at this point will be from the sides of the fuselage and the upward vector of the engine thrust.

As the plane continues to roll wings-vertical, the rudder will need to slowly be applied while the elevator is relaxed, and all of this needs to be done while maintaining constant aileron input.

As the plane continues the roll to wings-level, upright flight, the rudder will need to be carefully released as positive elevator is applied.

A slow roll can easily result in the aircraft falling out of the maneuver, so the pilot will usually need to ensure that the plane has sufficient altitude to recover if such an event occurs.

As the roll resumes, the pilot will need to continue holding the ailerons steady while cross-controlling the rudder and elevators until the next point is reached.

A properly performed hesitation roll requires precise control and timing of the control-surface inputs to hold the plane on a straight and level flightpath.