One good turn

When I was introduced to steep turns as a student pilot, I couldn't believe something that was so much fun could be legal - and so easy. Then I learned that I also had to do them while maintaining altitude, bank angle, and rolling out on a heading within specific limits. So, while it was still fun, it was also work.

Even so, among all the circus acts (OK, "performance maneuvers") in which pilots are expected to attain proficiency, at least steep turns were easy to visualize: You roll into a steep bank and fly a circle, then perhaps another in the opposite direction. (Of course, there's a little more to it than that.) The "how" was a bit harder.

Steep turns? Asking what they are is a rhetorical question. Also called steep power turns, they're likely to be a pilot's first exposure to what a higher gravity force, or G load, feels like (as in "gee, I'm sure being pushed down into this seat"). Aside from another box to check off and another checkride hoop to jump through, steep turns are useful. Did you ever suddenly need to beat a hasty retreat before you were no longer in visual conditions? Has a controller ever issued an abrupt heading change for traffic, asking you to "expedite"?

Unlike the chandelle or lazy eights (also fun, incidentally) steep turns are much simpler, in theory - but they still require awareness, and smooth coordination of (and better anticipation for) pitch, bank, and power. That's the "work" part. What you get back for all that work is refined aircraft control and an improved ability to divide your attention.

In addition to energy management and flying finesse, there's an academic benefit; this is where you gain your introduction to something known as the overbanking tendency. You see, airplanes are designed to have lateral stability; in other words, normally they won't start rolling over all by themselves. Design features such as wing dihedral and keel effect normally cause a return to wings level after small aileron movement, which is positive static stability. At roughly 30 degrees of bank, most airplanes will remain in the banked turn, with a little nose-up trim, displaying neutral static lateral stability. But beyond that, where differential outside wingtip speed and centrifugal force overcome built-in stability, is the realm of the graveyard spiral: The bank gets steeper, all by itself. As you can guess, that's negative stability.