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Thread: Radius of turn
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Old 12th June 2003 | 17:07
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Leo45
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Joined: Sep 2001
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From: UK
In a Rate One turn situation:

Half a circle is performed in one minute.
Therefore: PixR= TAS/60 ; R being the radius of turn and TAS/60 the distance flown in the air during one minute if you expressed TAS in mph, kph, or kt.

R= TAS/(Pix60)

Pi being 3,1415... the product (Pix60) is fairly close to 200.

Therefore: R= TAS/200

If TAS is expressed in Kt the latter formula gives you the radius of turn in the air (for a rate one turn) in NM.

You can replace TAS by GS which gives an approximation of the raduis of turn on the ground (though in a turn for a given wind speed conditon, the Gs is not constant).

Application:

You are tracking inbound to a VOR/DME to take up a 5 Dme arc.

Your ground speed indicator reads 120 kt.

You can assume that the radius of turn is R=120/200=.6 NM

The latest distance reading at which you turn to position on the arc is 5.6 NM.
However I would suggest to give yourelf a bit more leeway and turn at 6 rather than 5.6 and then adjust the rate of turn accordingly.
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