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To successfully perform eights along a ground reference, the pilot must be able to smoothly and accurately coordinate changes in bank angle to maintain a constant radius turn and counteract drift. The speed in which the pilot can anticipate these corrections directly affects the accuracy of the overall maneuver and the amount of attention that can be directed toward scanning for outside hazards and instrument indications. 

## Eights Across A Road 

This maneuver is a variation of eights along a road and involves the same principles and techniques. The primary difference is that at the completion of each loop of the figure eight, the airplane should cross an intersection of a specific ground reference point. [Figure 6-8] 

The loops should be across the road and the wind should be perpendicular to the loops. Each time the reference is crossed, the crossing angle should be the same, and the wings of the airplane should be level. The eights may also be performed by rolling from one bank immediately to the other, directly over the reference. 

## 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 6-9] 

The pattern involves flying downwind between the pylons and upwind outside of the pylons. It may include a short period of straight-and-level flight while proceeding diagonally from one pylon to the other. The pylons should be on a line perpendicular to the wind. The maneuver should be started with the airplane on a downwind heading when passing equally between the pylons. The distance between the pylons and the wind velocity determines the initial angle of bank required to maintain a constant turn radius from the pylons during each turn. The steepest banks are necessary just after each turn entry and just before the rollout from each turn where the airplane is headed downwind and the groundspeed is highest; the shallowest banks are when the airplane is headed directly upwind and the groundspeed is lowest. 

As in other ground reference maneuvers, the rate at which the bank angle must change depends on the wind velocity. If the airplane proceeds diagonally from one turn to the other, the rollout from each turn must be completed on the proper heading with sufficient wind correction angle to ensure that after brief straight-and-level flight, the airplane arrives at the point where a turn of the same radius can be made around the other pylon. The straight-and-level flight segments must be tangent to both circular patterns. 

Common errors in the performance of elementary eights are: 

• Failure to adequately clear the area above, below, and on either side of the airplane for safety hazards, initially and throughout the maneuver. 

• Poor selection of ground references. 

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