Training and Safety Tip: Clear the sky, and your head
Most training airplanes have roughly 170 square feet of wing, about the size of a typical American kitchen.
In a high wing configuration, all that wing creates cool shade on the ramp. Alternately, your low-wing airplane can double as a desk upon which to spread out your study materials.
A typical clearing turn isn’t really a turn at all, but a pair of 90-degree turns, first left, then right. Your clearing maneuver may vary, as there’s no hard-and-fast rule in the Airman Certification Standards or elsewhere in the regulations about how to accomplish one. Some instructors prefer a single 180-degree turn, a pair of one-eighties, or a single three-sixty. Any of these will get the job done. And that job– primarily–is to ensure you have your part of the airspace to yourself before you start playing in the sky.
But the maneuver is also an opportunity to clear your head of what you did previously and mentally review the steps for what you’ll do next.
Clearing turns are done at normal bank angles, typically 30 degrees. As you sweep around the turn(s), constantly scan for traffic. If you are about to practice an altitude-losing maneuver like a stall, steep spiral, or emergency descent, also pay particular attention to the airspace below you.
The first turn in a cleaning maneuver is generally to the left because if a faster airplane is coming up behind you, it will pass you to the right. If you turn right first, you’ll turn directly into its path, which will just ruin everyone’s day. If you’re flying a high-wing aircraft, before the first left turn, briefly raise the left wing with aileron, just to make sure no one is flying formation just above you where you can’t see them.
Clearing turns are maneuver-based, not lesson-based, so one maneuver does not clear the sky for the next maneuver. You need to clear each and every maneuver individually.
But that time is not wasted.
You’re not only clearing the airspace, you’re clearing your mind for what comes next.
