Partial panel flying
Flying without the attitude indicator: timed turns, compass turns, and reading the needle, ball, and airspeed instead.
17 min read · IFR emergencies
After this lesson you can
- Fly a standard-rate turn to a specific heading using only a clock and a turn instrument.
- Predict and correct for the two classic magnetic compass turning errors.
- Substitute the turn coordinator, airspeed, and altimeter for a failed attitude indicator in climbs, descents, and level flight.
- Accept and fly a no-gyro vector from ATC.
"Partial panel" is the name for flying an airplane in instrument conditions after the attitude indicator, and often the heading indicator, has failed. It sounds dramatic, but every private and instrument pilot practices it, because the surviving instruments (a turn indicator, the airspeed indicator, the altimeter, the VSI, and a magnetic compass) are enough to keep the airplane under full control if you know how to read them together.
This lesson teaches the two skills that make partial panel work: timed turns, which use a clock and a known turn rate instead of a heading indicator, and reading, and correcting for, the magnetic compass's turning and acceleration errors, since the compass is the only heading reference left once the heading indicator is gone.
The rest of this lesson
- 1.What you lose, and what is left
- 2.Timed turns
- 3.The magnetic compass lies while it is moving
- 4.No-gyro vectors: letting ATC fly the turns
- 5.Climbs, descents, and level flight without the attitude indicator
These 5 sections, their figures, the checks along the way and the end-of-lesson quiz come with the IFR track. Paid once, yours for good.
Key terms
Try to recall each definition before turning the card.