Compass Turns Flashcards
What’s the purpose/objective of this maneuver?
Familiarize ourselves with the inherent errors of the compass to allow its correct use in case of a directional gyroscope failure
What are the main errors to be considered when using a compass?
- Yaw
- Oscillation
- Inclination
- Acceleration
- Turning
When is a compass only accurate and reliable?
in straight and level flight
How do you perform this maneouver?
Instructor tells you to turn to a specific heading
What’s important about this?
Avoid as many errors as possible
What error is inevitable?
Osciallation (almost imperceptible)
How do you avoid errors of inclination, acceleration and yaw?
By Maintain height, speed, and a centered ball
Even if you avoid the errors above, what other error would still affect the maneuver?
Turning error
Where is it greatest?
In turns to the North and South headings
Where is it minimum?
Turns to East and West headings
What happens if we turn to East or West headings?
anticipation would be the same as normal
- for instance; 1/3 of the degree of anticipation
What about when we turn to the North?
We will have to determine our latitude, divide it by two and add a third of the bank angle
By doing that we get the anticipation we need in degrees
What about if we turn to the South?
We need to overshoot the heading.
So we need to see our latitude, divide it by half, and then substract a third of the bank angle.
In summary, turns to North course (stop before the heading)
NORTH, ——– I DON’T PASS (undershoot) 1/2 LATITUDE + 1/3 BANK ANGLE
Turns to South course (stop after the heading)
SOUTH ———— I DO PASS
1/2 LATITUDE - 1/3 BANK ANGLE
