illspam (Jim Vincent) wrote in message ...
In power, they're taught to fly patterns with very little bank angle, whereas
in gliders we're taught to bank at about 45 degrees or so. I well understand
the rationale for banking steeply in gliders, but why are power pilots taught
to do shallow turns?

The reason is, actually, pretty simple: power planes have god-awfull
visibility; if you bank too steeply you lose visual contact with a key
part of the pattern. This is something to keep in mind while flying in
the vacinity of power planes: if you can't see the cockpit, they can't
see you. In general, the best policy is to assume that they can't see
you and to act accordingly.

Tom Seim
Richland, WA