No-Gyro Vectors

Uh oh! Halfway through an IFR cross country flight, it appears your instrument panel has suffered a couple deaths in the family: the attitude indicator, and the heading indicator. A glance at the suction gauge shows none. To top it off, you left your handheld GPS back in the car. Youre in VMC right now, but theres instrument weather down the road to your destination. A look at your charts shows a decent-sized airport about twenty miles off your right wing that probably has an A&P mechanic. Better to put it down now than get into some clouds without knowing which ways up. Unfortunately, a scattered cloud deck below is making it hard to pick out any landmarks. Not a good day.

Key Takeaways:

• Pilots experiencing critical failures of attitude and heading indicators during an IFR flight, especially when approaching instrument weather, face a dangerous navigation challenge.
• The "no-gyro vector" is an Air Traffic Control (ATC) service designed to guide pilots in such situations, where ATC issues "turn left/right" and "stop turn" commands while the pilot executes standard rate turns using the turn coordinator.
• This procedure relies on precise pilot-ATC teamwork, with ATC monitoring the aircraft's track on radar, and pilots are encouraged to practice it during non-emergency flights for preparedness.

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