TECHNIQUE BY DAVE HIRSCHMAN ILLUSTRATION BY CHARLES FLOYD STEEP TURNS 'ROUND YOU GO STEEP TURNS TEST A PILOT'S ABILITY TO MANEUVER SMOOTHLY AND PRECISELY WHILE SCAN- ning (and correctly interpreting) flight instruments and outside references. "Steep" is generally defined as a bank angle between 45 and 60 degrees, and the FAA's airman certification standards use 45 degrees of bank as a target for private pilot practical tests. Steep turns show the relationship between the "rate and radius" of a turn (the faster the rate, the smaller the radius); an airplane's inherent overbanking tendency (which requires some amount of aileron pressure against the bank); variations in the horizontal and vertical components of lift; and how increases in load factor and angle of attack also raise an airplane's stall speed. A level 60-degree-bank turn, for example, doubles an airplane's load factor (to 2 Gs) and raises its stall speed to 70 knots from 50 knots at 1 G. 30 FLIGHT TRAINING MARCH 2019