Stall Turn

A Stall Turn (also known as Hammerhead Turn; Fieseler named after Gerhard Fieseler) is an aerobatics maneuver. The pilot puts the aircraft into a vertical climb, then quickly points the nose straight down into a dive, pulling out at the same altitude as the maneuver started, but with the nose of the aircraft pointed in the opposite direction.

This maneuver is sometimes errantly called a loop; it's not. A loop is ideally flown as a perfect circle ending at the same altitude and heading as it was begun.

The Fieseler has also been called a SAR (search and rescue) reversal which can be flown as a perfectly coordinated maneuver keeping the lateral acceleration ball centered. Helicopters fly this maneuver when hunting survivors or submarines which brings the aircraft directly back along the same course to verify your target for rescue or prosecution. The SAR reversal doesn't necessarily need to be accomplished in VMC (visual meteorological conditions) if the pilot is proficient at maintaining aircraft attitude and altitude control throughout the entire maneuver. Without visual reference, any uncoordinated lateral acceleration can and will induce spatial disorientation. "Spatial D" at low altitudes leaving insufficient time to correct speed, attitude and altitude divergences can prove to be catastrophic.