Insights

The introduction to steep turns often reveals a student's reluctance to put the airplane into a 45-degree bank and sit straight in the seat, rather than leaning away from the bank. The greatest error, however, occurs with vision. As the student rolls into the turn, he will look in the direction of turn for traffic or look at the flight instruments--when he should be looking straight ahead at the horizon to control pitch attitude.

Before starting steep turns, students must be shown that airplanes do not react immediately to attitude or power changes. To demonstrate this during presolo flight training, I trim the elevator for hands-off flight, temporarily control the airplane with rudder, and have students note the time required for two demonstrations.

First, we lean forward in our seats as far as possible. Initially, nothing happens, but after several seconds the airplane's nose slowly drops and we descend. Then we lean back as far as possible. Again, nothing happens for a few seconds, and then the nose slowly rises. When reaching the original pitch attitude, we return to our normal seat positions.

Next, I smoothly reduce power 300 or 400 rpm. Again, after a few seconds, the nose slowly drops and we descend. I then reapply power to the original setting, and after a few seconds the nose slowly rises to the original pitch attitude.

The object is to show students that an airplane is a balancing act between aerodynamic forces, and it takes time for those forces to stabilize. Of greater importance is this insight: Trimming the flight controls also takes time--this relates only to the elevator in most basic training airplanes, but it pertains to elevator, rudder, and ailerons in larger airplanes.

Students must also know that two tasks require a control input before the need for a correction becomes apparent--the landing approach and the 45-degree-bank, 360-degree steep turn. During the landing approach in normal wind conditions, students will maintain proper airspeed, but because wind velocity decreases as they descend, ground speed increases and they fly above the proper glidepath and land long.

Here's the trick: When the approach looks correct, extend the next increment of flaps. The descent angle will now steepen and keep the airplane on the proper glidepath.

For steep turns, clear the area for other aircraft, and fly toward a prominent reference point on the horizon. While on that heading, again clear the airspace in the direction of turn, look straight ahead at the reference point, and keep your eyes on that point and the horizon as you roll into the 45-degree bank.

Passing through 30 degrees of bank, make an audible power increase--do not look at the tachometer--to offset the increased drag of the maneuver. That keeps airspeed from decreasing appreciably and reduces the temptation to use elevator trim, which you should not do.

When you establish 45 degrees of bank--never before--smoothly pull the yoke back until you feel 1.4 Gs. Now pause for a moment to allow the aerodynamic forces to stabilize, and do not let the bank vary while you still look straight ahead, parallel to the airplane's longitudinal axis, in order to keep the horizon in the same position on the windshield.

Now, while maintaining the 1.4G load and the 45-degree bank, quickly glance at the vertical speed indictor (VSI), and immediately look back at the horizon. With your eyes on the horizon, evaluate the VSI indication. If climbing or descending, vary the bank angle no more than 5 degrees to stop the deviation--steepen the bank if climbing; shallow it if descending. Again, wait for a moment to let the forces stabilize. If you stare at the VSI instead of the horizon, I guarantee that you'll lose or gain altitude.

Do you know what 1.4 Gs feels like? If not, perform a 60-degree-bank turn, maintaining your altitude. That's 2.0 Gs. One point four Gs is almost half as much seat-in-the-pants pressure.

When the edge of the nose cowl approaches the reference point at the completion of the 360-degree turn, simultaneously start the rollout, make an audible power reduction to the original power setting, and reduce elevator input to keep the nose on the horizon. Now look at the altimeter, which will show that you maintained altitude. During the turn, however, you briefly referenced the VSI, because its reaction to altitude change is quicker than the altimeter's.

Never use a heading-indicator reference to start and complete this maneuver. Steep turns using the heading indicator are for instrument flying, not visual flying, and students taught to fly in that manner have not learned the basic priorities for visual flight.

Ralph Butcher, a retired United Airlines captain, is the chief flight instructor at a California flight school. He has been flying since 1959 and has 25,000 hours in fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft. Visit his Web site.