Rate of turn is expressed in which units?

• A. Radians per Second
• B. Degrees per Minute
• C. Degrees per Second
• D. Revolutions per Minute

Answer: (C)

Rate of turn is about how fast the aircraft’s heading changes over time, i.e., angular velocity around the vertical axis. The most direct way to express how quickly the heading shifts is in degrees per second, because heading itself is measured in degrees and the unit tells you how many degrees of change occur each second. For example, turning at 3 degrees per second means the nose sweeps through 3 degrees of heading each second, so in 20 seconds the heading changes by 60 degrees. While radians per second is also a valid way to express angular velocity, aviation practice and many practice questions use degrees per second for this measure. Degrees per minute would describe a much slower rate and is not as immediate for describing turn rate, and revolutions per minute would describe full turns per minute rather than incremental heading change.