TURNING PERFORMANCE

I came across this in the July & November 1997 issues of USUA Ultralight Flying and thought it might be of interest. This program will compute the turning radius of an aircraft based on its airspeed and bank angle.

Formula -
radius = speed2 / (gravity x tangent(bank angle))
time = 2 x PI x speed / (gravity x tangent(bank angle))
where: speed=feet per second (fps = mph x 1.47), mph to fps conversion is done for you on form below
gravity =32.2 fps

SPEED MPH
BANK ANGLE

TURN SIZE
RADIUS DIAMETER
TIME FOR 360 DEG TURN
IN SECONDS IN MINUTES

This form is for entertainment only! Please get additional advice before flying into a box canyon or large hangar. - George