Turns to Headings

A standard rate turn is 3° per second — a complete 360° circle in 2 minutes (IFH 7-19). The bank required increases with airspeed, so it is not a fixed number.

Two rules of thumb, both from the IFH:

• 15 percent of the true airspeed — divide the airspeed by 10 and add half the result. At 100 knots, about 15° of bank (100 ÷ 10 = 10, + 5 = 15); at 120 knots, about 18° (IFH 7-19).
• Divide the airspeed by 10 and add 7 — at 90 knots, about 16° of bank (IFH 4-11).

Teach the method, not the number: roll in using the attitude indicator to set the approximate bank, then check the turn coordinator, and note the exact bank angle on the attitude indicator's banking scale that produces a standard rate in your airplane at this speed (IFH 7-20).

Primary for bank changes three times over the turn, and that shift is the teaching point of the whole Task:

• Roll-in — the attitude indicator is primary for bank while you are establishing the bank.
• Established turn — the turn coordinator (miniature aircraft) is primary for bank, with the attitude indicator supporting; you are now holding a rate, not an angle (IFH 7-20).
• Roll-out — on initiating the recovery the attitude indicator becomes primary for bank again, and once approximately level the heading indicator is primary as in straight-and-level flight (IFH 7-21).

Meanwhile the altimeter is primary for pitch and the airspeed indicator is primary for power throughout a level standard rate turn (IFH 7-21).

"Pilots commonly roll into turns at a much too rapid rate" — and the IFH's cure is that during initial training, control pressures should be based on the rate of cross-check and interpretation. Maneuvering the airplane faster than the ability to keep up with the instrument indications only creates the need for corrections (IFH 7-19).

Say it as a limit they can self-check: "Roll at the speed you can still scan at. If you lost the altimeter during the roll-in, you rolled too fast." Then require a consistent roll rate in and out — if the rates match, the roll-in and roll-out times cancel and the lead computation becomes reliable (IFH 7-21).

• Lead the desired heading by one-half the number of degrees of bank being used. With 10° of bank, start the roll-out 5° before the heading (IFH 7-20).
• For small heading changes, use a bank angle that does not exceed the number of degrees to be turned — a 10° heading change gets no more than 10° of bank (IFH 7-20).
• For larger heading changes the lead varies, because the bank for a standard rate turn varies with true airspeed. Have the student practice with the half-the-bank lead until they identify the precise lead their own technique requires (IFH 7-21).

The error to name: rolling into 20° of bank for a 10° heading change overshoots every time, because the airplane rolls past the heading before the bank is even established — and the next correction goes the other way (IFH 7-25).

Aerodynamically: banking tilts the lift vector, reducing the vertical component of lift. Without additional back pressure the airplane descends, and the required pitch adjustment grows with the bank. The IFH names two versions of this fault: failure to understand or remember the need to change pitch attitude as the vertical lift component changes, producing consistent altitude loss on entry, and its mirror — failure to adjust pitch as the vertical component increases during the roll-out, producing a consistent gain in altitude on recovery (IFH 7-25).

Instructionally: they are almost certainly preoccupied with bank during the entry. The IFH fix is precise — if 5 seconds are required to roll into a turn, check the pitch instruments while the bank pressures are being applied, controlling the total attitude rather than one factor at a time (IFH 7-25). Give them a during-the-roll callout: "bank, altimeter, ball."

From IFH 7-25:

• Overcontrolling — overbanking on entry, overshooting and undershooting headings, and the pitch, airspeed, and trim errors that follow.
• Fixation on a single bank instrument — staring at the heading indicator through a 90° turn. At 3° per second the lead point is roughly 20 seconds away; make the cross-check selective, checking what needs checking when it needs it.
• Failure to check for precession after the roll-out — if the heading indicator shows a change while the attitude indicator shows level, the airplane is turning. Ball centered means the attitude gyro has precessed; if the ball is not centered, the airplane may be in a slipping or skidding turn (IFH 7-25). Center the ball, cross-check, stop the heading change, and re-trim.
• Wrong bank for the heading change, forgetting the assigned heading (common when rushing), and turning the wrong direction from a misread heading indicator.
• Failure to trim during entry and after recovery on a prolonged turn.

The slip/skid indicator is one of the most commonly omitted instruments from the scan (IFH 6-28), and omitting it is the classic example of the emphasis error: rolling out of a 180° turn requires the attitude indicator, heading indicator, slip/skid indicator, and altimeter, and if the ball is left out, coordination is sacrificed (IFH 6-28).

Two reasons to make it non-negotiable under the hood:

• The airplane should be trimmed for coordinated flight by centering the ball, using rudder trim in the direction the ball is displaced (IFH 7-12). The ball is a trim instrument, not just a coordination instrument.
• Skidding and slipping sensations easily aggravate disorientation and retard recovery (IFH 7-28). Uncoordinated flight is not merely untidy; it is the input that makes a confused student more confused.

A timed turn uses the clock and the turn coordinator instead of the heading indicator: at standard rate an airplane turns 45° in 15 seconds; at half standard rate, 45° in 30 seconds (IFH 7-21).

Technique: the turn coordinator's miniature aircraft is primary for bank, the altimeter primary for pitch, and the ASI primary for power. Start the roll-in as the second hand passes a cardinal point, hold the calibrated standard rate, and begin the roll-out when the computed seconds have elapsed. If the roll-in and roll-out rates are the same, the entry and recovery time does not have to be counted (IFH 7-21).

Calibrate first: hold a standard rate and check that the heading changes 30° in 10 seconds; if not, adjust the turn coordinator deflection you use (IFH 7-21). The value for a VFR pilot is a survivable 180° turn out of cloud after a vacuum failure has taken the attitude and heading indicators with it.

AI.XI.D.S1 sets four standards for turns to headings:

• Altitude: ±100 feet
• Rate: standard rate turn
• Heading roll-out: ±10°
• Airspeed: ±10 knots

AI.XI.D.S2 adds analyze and correct common errors.

Note that "maintain a standard rate turn" has no stated tolerance of its own — you are expected to hold the turn coordinator's index. And note what is not here: steep turns and 30° bank turns belong to other Areas. This Task is about rate, heading, and altitude discipline on instruments.

1. "Turn right to 180 — that's about 90 degrees of turn, so I want a standard rate. Say the target back to me."
2. "Coordinated aileron and rudder, rolling at a rate I can still scan through. Attitude indicator shows about 15° — that's my bank primary right now."
3. "Turn coordinator's on the index. From here the turn coordinator is primary for bank; I'm holding a rate, not an angle."
4. "Altimeter — I'm adding back pressure as the vertical lift component dropped. Ball's centered. Trim."
5. "Now I leave the heading indicator alone for about twenty seconds. Nothing to see there yet."
6. "Coming up on 172 — half my bank angle of lead. Rolling out at the same rate I rolled in. Attitude indicator's primary again."
7. "Wings level, heading indicator primary. 180. Releasing back pressure and re-trimming."

Because the rate is the thing that survives an instrument failure. The bank angle for 3° per second changes with true airspeed, so a memorized "15 degrees" is wrong the moment the airplane speeds up. A student who has learned "set the turn coordinator on the index" has a technique that works at any speed and, critically, works on partial panel when the attitude indicator is gone — the turn coordinator operates on precession rather than rigidity and often runs on a different power source — many general aviation airplanes with pneumatic attitude indicators use electric rate indicators, or the reverse (IFH 5-20, 5-17).

There is also a control-quality argument: the turn coordinator's miniature aircraft gives useful information about small deviations from straight coordinated flight that are hard to see on the attitude indicator's banking scale, especially given the attitude indicator's own precession error (IFH 7-21).

Work down the IFH heading-error list rather than repeating "watch your heading" (IFH 7-13):

• Failure to cross-check the heading indicator, especially during power or pitch changes — the heading indicator is the first instrument dropped whenever something else gets busy.
• Correcting in the wrong direction from a misread indicator.
• Failure to observe the rate of heading change and relate it to bank attitude — an interpretation gap, not a control gap.
• Overcontrolling, and anticipating heading changes with premature rudder.
• Tolerating small deviations. "Unless zero error in heading is the goal, a pilot will tolerate larger and larger deviations" — correcting 1° costs far less than correcting 20°.
• Repeating a known cause — the classic case is an airplane out of trim with a left-wing-low tendency, corrected over and over while the trim is ignored.

That last one is the instructor's job: name the cause, not the symptom, or the student practices the error until it is permanent.

• Coriolis illusion (AI.XI.D.R1, R4) — spatial disorientation is named in R1's hazard list and again in R4; R5 is "fixation and omission," a scan fault, so do not file the illusions there on the oral. After the fluid in the ear canals has matched the turn, a head movement in a different plane can create a compelling illusion of turning or accelerating on a different axis, and the disoriented pilot may maneuver into a dangerous attitude to "correct" it. This is why the cross-check must involve minimal head movement, and why a dropped pencil is retrieved with minimal head movement or not at all (IFH 3-6).
• The leans (AI.XI.D.R1) — a bank entered too slowly to set the ear fluid in motion, then corrected abruptly, creates the illusion of a bank the other way (IFH 3-5). Turns are where students first feel it. Brief it beforehand so the sensation is a predicted event rather than a frightening one.
• The rest of R1 — the element reads "instrument flying hazards, including failure to maintain VFR, spatial disorientation, loss of control, fatigue, stress, and emergency off-airport landings." Teach all of it: turns under the hood can walk you out of VFR conditions or into a shelf; hood work is fatiguing, so twenty focused minutes beats an hour of degrading performance; and the honest end of the chain is that an instrument hazard a VFR pilot mishandles ends in a loss of control or an off-airport landing. Ask the debrief question — if that turn had been real, in cloud, where would you have put it down?
• When to seek assistance or declare an emergency (AI.XI.D.R2) — the 180° turn back to VFR conditions and the call for help are the same decision, made at the same moment. Teach the trigger: advise ATC and, if necessary, declare an emergency before the situation deteriorates beyond the pilot's ability to recover (IFH 11-7). Declaring is the correct reaction — ATC gives priority handling and 91.3 permits the PIC to deviate as required (AIH 1-20).
• Collision hazards (AI.XI.D.R3) — turns sweep the airplane through airspace nobody in the cockpit is watching except you.
• Loss of situational awareness (AI.XI.D.R4) — assign headings that keep you inside the practice area and clear of Class B/C shelves; the student has no way to know where they are.
• Control application solely by reference to instruments (AI.XI.D.R7) — the failure mode is a steepening, descending, accelerating turn. That is the graveyard spiral entry (IFH 3-6), and it is your cue to take the controls, not to coach.