Turn indicator error?

[Dozer]

Another minor bug: the turn indicator doesn't seem to indicate turns greater than rate 1.

I'm in a very tight spiral dive here, but the turn indicator still shows I'm doing a standard turn (180° per sixty seconds, I think). The aircraft symbol surely should be able to move beyond the marks that indicate a standard turn, or how do you know you're turning too tight?

(hope this doesn't come across as nit-picking, but IFR is what I like, so I'm mostly looking at all the instruments...)

[Goran_M]

The turn indicator, from what I remember in the POH, only shows a turn indication and that turn indication only goes up to 20°.  The instrument only tells you that you are in a turn.  For the angle of turn or any details of the turn, the artificial horizon should be used.

I will check into it, though.

[Dozer]

OK, thanks for the reply. I thought it was (what I now have learned is called) a Turn Coordinator, which indicates rate of heading change (not angle of roll). With a turn coordinator, if you line the wingtip up with the mark, you're doing a Standard Rate turn (2min for a complete 360° turn) which is used in some instrument flying procedures such as holding patterns and instrument approaches. And also useful if  your compasses are all broke - you can make heading changes using the TC and a stopwatch.

[Ben Russell]

+1 Dozer.

An instrument that cant show you when you're over and by how much you're over, is useless and will do nothing but induce PIO.

[Ben Russell]

Google images search reveals no evidence that the gauge can indicate when you are turning too quickly. What a stupid design.

[Goran_M]

Just looked through the documentation in the POH, my notes from my flying school days and wikipedia.  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turn_coordinator

All co ordinated turns are to take 2 minutes.  They are not supposed to be "rushed".  It sucks that it's capped, but that's the way it was.  

I might actually check out if the "plane" stops moving past the 20° mark. 

If it does keep going (so as to accurately hold the aircraft at a non capped marker point) I'll fix it for the next update.

[mattag08]

This is incorrect. Turn Coordinators display rates greater than 3*/sec. What should happen is the turn coordinator should display rate of heading change and will peg out at about 5*/sec with the artificial airplane pointing its wing to a point that is about 50% further than the standard rate marking.

Rate of turn (angular rate or heading change per unit time) is indirectly related to bank angle, but is also a function of speed, so you cannot say that the turn coordinator should or should not peg at 20*.

[Goran_M]

This is incorrect. Turn Coordinators display rates greater than 3*/sec. What should happen is the turn coordinator should display rate of heading change and will peg out at about 5*/sec with the artificial airplane pointing its wing to a point that is about 50% further than the standard rate marking.

Rate of turn (angular rate or heading change per unit time) is indirectly related to bank angle, but is also a function of speed, so you cannot say that the turn coordinator should or should not peg at 20*.

I'll be looking further into the turn co ordinator issue early next week.

There will be a final update sometime in January.