21.03.2019 IFR Fl ght Ops Rules of Thumb | W ll amsHangar.

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IFR Flight Ops Rules of Thumb

Standard Rate Turn Timing

Degrees of turn divided by 3 = seconds to turn
Application: Current heading is 100. ATC instructs you to turn right to heading 190. Your gyroscopic
heading indicator is inop and you are using your magnetic compass for heading control. Total
degrees of turn required is 90. Divide 90 by 3 to get 30. A standard rate turn is 3 degrees per second
so fly a standard rate turn for 30 seconds and you’ll change your heading by 90 degrees. Refine your
heading once you roll out of the turn. This technique can go a long way to preventing magnetic
compass lead/lag calculation helmet fires.

Standard Rate Turn Diameter & Radius

Diameter = 1% of Ground Speed
Radius = Ground Speed ÷ 2 and add a decimal to the front
Application: You are currently tracking a course toward an arc.
When should you initiate the turn to intercept the arc?
Method 1: Your ground speed is 120 knots. 1% of that is 1.2 – which is roughly your current standard
rate turn diameter. For 90 degree turns (which arc intercepts usually are) use half your turn diameter as
your turn radius and initiate your turn at 0.6NM prior to the arc.
Method 2 (preferred): Your ground speed is 90 knots. Divide 90 by 2 to get 45. Add a decimal in front
of 45 to get 0.45 and you’ve got your approximate standard rate turn radius. Start your 90 degree turn
to intercept the arc 0.45NM prior to the arc. (Yes, I would use 0.5NM)
Note: Although the use of ground speed in these calculations does a lot to account for the effects of
wind, you may still need to make an additional adjustment for the wind – particularly if the wind
speed is relatively high. As a rough estimate, if wind speed equals 25% or more of your indicated
airspeed you should be thinking and planning ahead rather than waiting until you’ve finished your
turn to figure out what heading will give you the correct ground track on the next segment of the
approach procedure.

Bank Angle Required for Standard Rate Turn

Drop last digit of airspeed and add 5
Application: Your turn coordinator is unreliable today. Current airspeed is 120 knots. How do you
know what bank angle will produce the standard rate turn ATC expects? Drop the last digit of your
airspeed and you are left with 12. Add 5 to 12 and you have the approximate bank angle required to
create 3° of heading change per second – in this case a 17° bank. Since light aircraft pilots most often
use standard rate turns while flying either 90 knots or 120 knots, just memorize 14° for 90 knots and
18° for 120 knots. If you’re an engineer you’ll want to know that this actually applies to true airspeed
and that the standard rate turn bank angles are actually 13.91° for 90 knots true, 18.28° for 120
knots true, and 22.43° for 150 knots true. Anything above that really doesn’t ma er since ATC expects
you to use the bank angle that results in a standard rate turn up to 25° of bank maximum. A 25° bank

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21.03.2019 IFR Fl ght Ops Rules of Thumb | W ll amsHangar.com

turn will create standard rate at 170 knots. So when a controller sees that your airspeed is above 170
knots he/she knows you will turn at less than 3° per second. But this, of course, is an issue rarely
faced by GA pilots.

Descent Rate Required for 3° Glide Slope

Ground Speed ÷ 2 × 10
Application: Because you are an excellent instrument pilot, you have arrived at the final approach fix
altitude prior to the fix, on course, and stabilized at 90 knots. How do you know what descent rate
will be required to keep you on glide path once you capture the glide slope? Divide your ground
speed by 2 and add a zero to the end. In this case, half of 90 knots is 45. Add a zero to the end and
you’ve got a 450 feet per minute descent rate required to maintain a 3° glide path. If your approach
speed was 120 knots you would divide 120 by 2 to get 60 and then add a zero to get 600 – a 600FPM
required descent rate for a 3° glide slope. Because the wind direction and velocity can change
significantly between the final approach fix and the decision height, your ground speed may change
during the final approach segment and it’s good practice to recalculate as you descend. Using this
method reduces the tendency to chase the glide slope – particularly when you’re closing in on the
decision height.

Descent Rate Required for a Specific Glide Path

Ground Speed ÷ 60 × glide path angle – then add two zeros
Application: You’re planning to land on the grass strip at your brother-in-law Bob’s private mountain
fly-fishing retreat. The terrain requires you to make a steep descent on approach. Bob says that to
avoid the surrounding terrain you need to stay at 3600 feet above field elevation until six miles from
the end of the runway. That’s 600 feet per nautical mile which is a 6° glide path. You plan to descent
at 90 knots from 6 miles out and slow to a full flap landing once you’re clear of terrain about 2 miles
from touch down. What descent rate should you plan to use? Divide your ground speed – in this case
90 knots – by 60, which gives you 1.5. Now multiply the 6° glide path by 1.5 to get 9. Add two zeros
to the end and you’ve got a 900 feet per minute descent rate required to fly a 6° glide path at 90 knots.
As you slow to 60 knots for a soft-field landing with full flaps, recalculate to get 600FPM. Yes, this is a
calculation best done at zero knots during preflight planning. Don’t forget to flare and watch out for
moose on the runway (or moosen, or many moosen.)

This entry was posted on December 11, 2015 at 1:17 pm and is filed under IFR, MEL, Private Pilot
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