During the hammerhead the aircraft is pulled up into a vertical climb and established in straightline flight along the vertical upline. It is allowed to fly along the up line until the instant before it runs out of airspeed (kinetic energy) and almost becomes stationary. It is the pivoted 180° around its vertical axis and established in straightline flight along the vertical down line parallel and opposite to the upline. It is allowed to gain speed along the downline and is then pulled out into straight and level flight opposite to the entry direction, to exit the maneuver.

During the hammerhead, the aircraft approaches the extremes of the performance envelope in terms of load and airspeed. It is an important competition maneuver. In competition, the length of the upline and downline do not have to be equal (respective length will depend on the preceding and following maneuvers), though they both have to be clearly established.

Typical minimum entry speeds

Aerobatic trainer:	160 mph
Intermediate aircraft:	180 mph
Unlimited monoplane:	190 mph

By the way: you will find a hammerhead-movie on the page Bücker aerobatics.

-	Establish entry speed; over the road; pull!
-	Look left; vertical, neutral stick
-	(Aircraft buffets) Left rudder, right aileron, slight forward stick in sequence
-	(Nose goes through horizon) Glance left, note spot, look ahead
-	45°, full right rudder, neutral controls
-	Straight down ... wait ... pull!