Compass turns are not required by the PTS. In my opinion, teaching and
practicing compass turns is a complete waste of time that could be more
profitably spent on more practical maneuvers. OTOH, timed turns make
perfectly good sense.

Imagine that you are an instrument-rated pilot flying on a dark and stormy
night. Your vacuum pump fails (or your vacuum-operated attitude
indicator/heading indicator fails). Your wife is scared, your kids are
crying, the turbulence is moderate to extreme, and you are trying to
remember whether to lag or lead the rollout by...the latitude? One-half the
latitude? Can't remember, and the situation is not getting any better.

Compare that with simply rolling into a standard rate turn (still hard to
maintain in turbulence) and watching the seconds tick by. BTW, nobody
expects you to roll out anywhere close to a desired heading when conditions
are really bad.

Bob Gardner

"paul kgyy" wrote in message
oups.com...
I think the problem is that, with a high-mounted compass, you are
looking out the window every time you look at the compass. I'm not
sure how examiners deal with this.