The canyon turn
Speed, bank, and the decision point: the escape maneuver, step by step.
15 min read · Mountain and high-altitude flying
After this lesson you can
- Explain why turn radius depends on both bank angle and airspeed, and which of the two shrinks the turn without raising stall risk.
- State how load factor and stall speed change with bank angle in a level turn.
- Work a numeric example sizing a turn radius to a valley width at a given bank angle and airspeed.
- Identify the decision point that must come before, not during, a valley narrows past the point of a safe turn.
A canyon turn is a 180-degree reversal flown in a space narrower than the airplane's normal turning room allows, made necessary when the terrain ahead is closing in faster than the airplane can climb over it. It is not a maneuver the FAA publishes a single checklist for; it is the aerodynamics of turn radius, load factor, and stalling speed, applied under pressure, in a space that does not forgive a wide turn.
This lesson builds that aerodynamics from verified handbook material: what actually controls how tight a turn an airplane can fly, what that tighter turn costs in stall margin, and how to size the decision, before the canyon narrows, rather than during it.
The rest of this lesson
- 1.Why a turn back is sometimes the only way out
- 2.Turn radius: what actually controls it
- 3.The other half of the trade: load factor and stalling speed
- 4.Sizing the turn to the canyon
- 5.Where you sit in the valley decides the outcome
- 6.The decision point comes before the canyon narrows
These 6 sections, their figures, the checks along the way and the end-of-lesson quiz come with the CPL track. Paid once, yours for good.
Key terms
Try to recall each definition before turning the card.