2 more reasons for the shallow bank turns in power aircraft.

One Valid reason is that many power pilot carry passengers and it is
just more comfortable (less Scary) for the passangers to make
shallower turns.

Second, unfortunatly some of the procedures for making large patterns
with Power have trickled down from the Military and Airlines and have
started to be taught as standard for small single engine aircraft.
While these procedures are appropriate and the safest way to operate
Larger Turbine aircraft it is simply not applicable and can be
dangerous to operate small single engine aircraft this way.

I teach that a 30 degree bank turn should be typical (Vary as
appropriate) for turns in the Pattern for power aircraft This is a
good compromise for comfortable turns and reasonably small pattern
size.

Interestingly Many Pilots (Instructors included) don't seem to realize
that many (not all) aircraft actually are much harder to stall in a
steep turn than a shallow turn. This is because unless the CG is near
or past the aft CG Limit the elevator does not have enough power to
hold the turn and stall the wing. This is somewhat supported by fact
that most stall spin accidents are not initated from a steep turn but
rather from shallow skidded turns. Generally it is actually safer to
use a steeper turn.


Brian
CFIIG/ASEL

illspam (Jim Vincent) wrote in message ...
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.

Tom, that makes sense to me for a high wing plane, but not for a low wing
plane. My friend had been taught never to bank too much in the pattern because
of the stall risk, I think. Yet us glider guiders are taught exactly the
opposite. Maybe since we fly the pattern so much closer to stall speed?


Jim Vincent
CFIG
N483SZ
illspam