The six instruments
A traditional instrument panel has six core instruments, usually in two rows of three. Learn what each shows before practising speed.
Airspeed indicator
Shows speed through the air, usually in knots. Coloured arcs mark operating ranges for the specific aircraft.
Attitude indicator
Shows pitch and bank against an artificial horizon: the aircraft symbol above the horizon line means nose up, and a tilted horizon means the wings are banked.
Altimeter
Shows altitude in feet. On a three-needle altimeter, the longest needle shows hundreds, the shorter one thousands and the smallest ten thousands, so read the needles in order from smallest to largest.
Turn coordinator
Shows the rate of turn and, with its ball, whether the turn is coordinated. A standard-rate turn is 3 degrees per second, a full circle in 2 minutes.
Heading indicator
Shows the direction the nose points, from 000 to 359 degrees. It is periodically aligned with the magnetic compass because it drifts over time.
Vertical speed indicator
Shows the rate of climb or descent in feet per minute. Zero means level flight.
Build a scan
A common technique is to start at the attitude indicator in the centre, move out to one instrument, and return to the centre before checking the next. It stops you fixating on a single reading.
Cross-check related instruments
Instruments confirm each other. When one reading changes, the related instruments should agree, and checking them is the fastest way to catch a misread.
- Climbing: nose up on the attitude indicator, altimeter rising, vertical speed positive
- Turning: wings banked on the attitude indicator, heading changing, turn coordinator showing a turn
- Level and steady: wings level, altimeter steady, vertical speed at zero
Mistakes to avoid
Most errors come from reading too fast rather than from not knowing the instrument.
- Reading the altimeter's hundreds needle as thousands
- Confusing a bank angle with a heading change
- Trusting one instrument without checking a related one