F-18 fighter jet maneuver?

Question

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aQXRGAiXnU&feature=related

Look at 0:45 in this video. Is the pilot actually making a left turn or what. It looks weird its hard to explain. It looks like hes just rolling left and moving left without turning. Sorry for bad explanation but I always see this kinda manuever and it looks awesome but i never understood exactly what they were doing.

Answer 1

looked like a normal, coordinated turn to me. but to the right.

Answer 2

they said f-16 but your right f-18 just rolled a little and dropped in altitude

Answer 3

Could be a 'knife edge'. In this maneuver, the pilots hold 90 degrees bank and control the nose attitude by means of the  rudders. The aircraft continues going straight without turning in any direction.

Answer 4

in the video, is it just a break turn to the right.

Usually the pilot will roll 90 degrees left or right and pull the stick back for a 4 to 7 G turn.

Believe me, the aircraft is turning. If you were under it and looking up, you would see it fly a curved course. Its just the camera that makes it look like that.

NOTE: In some movies, it looks like that because they used little models of the airplanes with a background of the sky to save money. When they do that, it is usually very obvious. Nowadays, its computers that do the fakes and its a little harder to notice.

Break turns are used to get you and the aircraft pointed in the direction you want as fast as possible. Sometimes used in the landing pattern to turn onto final or for strafing/bombings runs. Just click the link that they other guy gave you. It explains it pretty well. It looks very good as well and ensures safe separation of the aircraft in formation.  ( If during an attack run, every aircraft went their own way, a mid-air collision would be a lot more likely)

Avril described a maneuver correctly but it does not apply to the video.

Answer 5

It's a normal high-bank turn to the right. Move stick to the right into knife edge and then pull back hard to wind up the turn.

It's something you also may see fighters do coming in to land, called a run-and-break, or initial-and-pitch (depending on who you are flying for). They fly down the runway heading in formation and break away sharply one at a time, using the g-forces of the turn to slow the airplane down to landing speed.

Watch this pair of F-15s coming back from a Red Flag exercise, 1:16, it'll show the pattern break.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5Om5yAMS...