Need advice on making steep turns

Pro Member Trainee
kopite Trainee

I'm new to flight simulators and need some advice on making steep turns. I'm trying to pass the Private Pilot Checkride in FS2004 but after numerous attempts I keep failing on the steep turns. I've been practicing steep turns and seem to do fairly well most of the time but when I attempt the checkride I'm am unable to stay within the parameters. Altitude is either too high or too low, airspeed too high or low, bank too steep, rollout too soon etc., etc.

Any advice?

Thanks
kopite

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Pro Member Chief Captain
Alex (Fire_Emblem_Master) Chief Captain

First piece of advice, the check pilot is ANAL about everything.

One thing to do is keep a constant eye on the instruments and not out the windshield as much, you won't really hit anything, so you're all clear there; I would say use the autorudder feature as well, that usually makes things somewhat easier.

You can always "cheat" with the autopilot 😂 I wouldn't advocate this of course

Don Wood Guest

I haven't tried with sim but the technique to making consistent steep turns within the parameters in real life is:

1. establish your 45 degree bank angle crisply and coordinate your turn (center the ball)
2. immediatley crank in a little nose-up trim
3. apply a little additional power
4. Continiuosly monitor the turn indicator to maintain 45 degrees of bank and the rate of climb indicator to maintain the correct altitude
5. Begin your roll out approximately 1/2 the number of degrees that your bank is (i.e. on a steep turn, you are banking at 45 degrees so you would begin your rollout at about 22.5 degrees before the desired course-round it off to 20 degrees).
6. As you establish your roll-out, bring your attitude indicator to level flight, reduce power slightly and crank in a little nose down trim

The amount of trim and power you need to add and reduce varies by not only a/c type but by each individual airplane and by how it is loaded on that day. If you experiment a bit you'll find the right combination once you have mastered the basics. Then as is the case with many other pilot skills, practice, practice, practice.

BTW-real life flight examiners are usually just as tough on altutude, heading, angle of bank deviations as the sim check pilot is.

Pro Member Chief Captain
CRJCapt Chief Captain

Steep Turn
Begin with approximately 2300 RPM. On heading at a airspeed of 100 Kts. As you roll through 30 degrees of bank, raise nose to halfway between the horizon line and the first black line on Attitude indicator , that's about 2-3 degrees nose up. 45 degrees is halfway between the two large white lines on the Attitude indicator. I don't trim for steep turns. Add power to about 2400 RPM-full throttle to maintain airspeed. Notice that the real horizon intersects the glare shield near the screw above the altimeter. This is a visual pitch reference. Don't look at the vertical speed indicator (VSI), it's to sensitive and will cause you to over control. If altitude in too high, pitch down to the horizon. If altitude in to low, raise nose to the first black line (5 degrees)or visually. Begin roll out about 30 degrees before your reference heading. 1/2 the bank angle is the norm but it turns fast and 30 degrees seems to allow a slower recovery. It depends on how fast you reduce bank. 25-30 degrees. As you roll back through 30 degrees, reduce pitch to the horizon. Reduce power to 2200-2300 rpm. 🙂

And before anyone writes in,I am 5 kts slow because I needed more power. I used my throttle hand to search for and hit [print screen] while holding left rudder pedal. That's still within standards. 😛

Pro Member Trainee
kopite Trainee

Thanks for all the great advice, I finally passed the Private Pilot Checkride! 😀

Now on to the Instrument Rating lessons.

kopite

Pro Member First Officer
ARD-DC First Officer

Do yourself a favour and please do read some 3rd party manuals, walkthroughs, guides etc. about the IR Checkride, we promise it will save you lots of time, many headaches and failures as the IR Checkride is slightly bugged Wink
When you just jump in and follow the instructors commands you may find yourself failing every time. Fear

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