Welcome Guest. Sign in or Signup

3 Answers

Standard Rate Turn

Asked by: 6727 views General Aviation

Why is 3 degrees per second accepted as the norm for a standard rate turn? In other words, why did the FAA decide 3 degrees per second is "standard"? Just curious about the logic. Thanks for the feedback.

Ace Any FAA Written Test!
Actual FAA Questions / Free Lifetime Updates
The best explanations in the business
Fast, efficient study.
Pass Your Checkride With Confidence!
FAA Practical Test prep that reflects actual checkrides.
Any checkride: Airplane, Helicopter, Glider, etc.
Written and maintained by actual pilot examiners and master CFIs.
The World's Most Trusted eLogbook
Be Organized, Current, Professional, and Safe.
Highly customizable - for student pilots through pros.
Free Transition Service for users of other eLogs.
Our sincere thanks to pilots such as yourself who support AskACFI while helping themselves by using the awesome PC, Mac, iPhone/iPad, and Android aviation apps of our sponsors.

3 Answers



  1. Jeff on Jan 22, 2016

    I suspect it\\\’s because a standard rate turn allows you to complete a 360 in two minutes, and a 180 in one minute. By having easy to calculate time references, doing things like holds become easier. Also for aircraft going less than 180 kts, it keeps the bank angle less than 25 deg. Note that faster airplanes typically don\\\’t use the standard rate turn. Above 180 kts aircraft typically just bank at 25 deg.

    +1 Votes Thumb up 1 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes



  2. John D Collins on Jan 22, 2016

    I don’t know the answer to the question, but doubt the FAA is the outfit who defined 3 degrees per second rate of turn as standard rate. The indicator was invented by Sperry in the 1920’s, 30 years before there was an FAA. A 3 degree turn will turn the aircraft around (180 degrees) in one minute, and a complete 360 degree turn in 2 minutes. 90 degree turns are 30 seconds. Being able to predict the time for a turn is a very useful characteristic.

    At the same time, since the bank angle for a constant rate turn is related to the airspeed, one would want a bank angle that can be used over a range of airspeeds. The angle of bank is related to the airspeed and rate of turn, At 120 kts, the bank angle is at 18 degrees and at 250 Kts, the bank angle is nearly 35 degrees. The latter borders on a steep turn and most airplanes will start to have an over banking tendency at that large of a bank angle. Most attitude based autopilots will limit the bank angle to 25 degrees.

    At higher speeds a lower rate of turn, usually half standard rate is used because of excessive bank angles and g loading. For example. a standard rate turn would not be used because at 600 Kts as the g loading would be roughly 2 g’s and the bank angle would be close to 60 degrees.

    +1 Votes Thumb up 1 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes



  3. Dan Chitty on Jan 24, 2016

    Thank you for the feedback Jeff and John. Much appreciated.

    0 Votes Thumb up 0 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes


The following terms have been auto-detected the question above and any answers or discussion provided. Click on a term to see its definition from the Dauntless Aviation JargonBuster Glossary.

Answer Question

Our sincere thanks to all who contribute constructively to this forum in answering flight training questions. If you are a flight instructor or represent a flight school / FBO offering flight instruction, you are welcome to include links to your site and related contact information as it pertains to offering local flight instruction in a specific geographic area. Additionally, direct links to FAA and related official government sources of information are welcome. However we thank you for your understanding that links to other sites or text that may be construed as explicit or implicit advertising of other business, sites, or goods/services are not permitted even if such links nominally are relevant to the question asked.