The manual briefly describes the procedure for approximate calculation of aircraft performance and evaluation of its aerobatic properties. It proposes a simple calculation method for selection of parameters of the aircraft automatic control system (stability and controllability), which provide the assigned aerobatic characteristics of the aircraft. The presented methodology has passed more than twenty years of use in the educational process. In the manual, original methods are selected and proposed that most fully reflect the physical essence of the assessed characteristics and the degree of influence of various structural, layout and operational factors on them. It should be noted that the above methods are quite simple to implement both for direct calculations and for calculations using computer technology.