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Old 15th January 2007 | 21:41
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your_dreamguy
 
Joined: Jun 2003
Posts: 31
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From: SW United States
Question Approximation for Turn Radius

Hello,
I was flying to Mexico a few days ago. The approach to airport we were going to had a teardrop.
The captain I was flying with, stated we could approximate the radius of turn, using a formula. Radius of Turn approx equals 10% of groudspeed.
Does this formula really work? If the formula works, what does it mean? For example if your G/S is 180 KTS, then you could make a 360 degree turn of an airplane and the radius of the circle your groundtrack would trace would be 1.8 NM?
Also, what assumptions does this make? No wind conditions, using 30 deg of bank???
Finally, this formula wouldn't work in a teardrop scenario...would it? I would think for a teardrop, you would need the formula to calculate arc length of a circle.

Looking for your input.
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