Technique: Canyon turn
A Last-Ditch Escape Maneuver
Pilots don’t intend to fly into dead-end canyons, but it happens. For this reason, pilots should practice minimum-radius “canyon turns” before they start flying in the mountains. Refine your technique and, if the unthinkable ever happens, you’ll increase your odds of a safe escape.
Here’s how it works.
Click image to enlarge.
Make the math work for you
Airspeed is under your control
The radius of a turn equals the velocity squared divided by the constant of 11.26 times the tangent of the bank angle in degrees. Simply put, the pilot only controls two variables: airspeed and bank angle.
A 30-degree bank at 120 knots results in a turn radius of 2,215 feet. But slow to 80 knots, and a 30-degree bank produces a turn radius of just 985 feet.
Why not bank even steeper? In a coordinated turn, stall speed increases at the square of the load factor. In a 60-degree bank level turn, load factor doubles, and the stall speed increases about 40 percent. If a pilot turns too steeply, a higher stall speed outweighs any benefit.
