on this episode of free pilot training we're going to be talking about how to calculate load factor since you might see some questions relating to this on your faa written exam remember we measure load factor by g forces this is simply gravity or our weight multiplied on the test they may want you to show how bank angle and load factor correlate then they'll show you a chart like this don't be intimidated by this it's really quite simple the first question you might see is what is your load factor if you make a 30 degree turn in your airplane by the way the lines on the test should be way more obvious than in this video we'll start this by drawing a line up from our 30 degree mark then we'll move over to our load factor scale i'm getting about 1.2 gs here and that's our answer on this one it's as simple as that here's another one what is your total load with an airplane that weighs 1475 pounds in a 45 degree bank turn let's start with our 45 degree bank angle and run the chart the same way this time i'm getting 1.5 g's but that's not the question they're asking this time they want you to find your total load this is super simple to do all you have to do is multiply your weight times your load factor in this case we've got 475 pounds times 1.5 g's that gives us a total load of 2212.5 pounds let's look at the same problem with an airplane weighing 3 800 pounds in a 60 degree bank turn we'll run our line up from the 60 here then back over and it looks like i've got about two g's don't worry the chart on the test should be much better once again for this problem we'll use weight times load which is three thousand eight hundred times two so for this problem we have a total load of seven thousand six hundred pounds let's look at a couple more things real quick if you bank your aircraft to 60 degrees by what percentage will your stall speed increase again for this chart we'll start with our 60 degrees of bang we'll move up to our stall speed increase mark then over to our percentage looks like about 42 so if we have a stall speed of 40 knots then that 42 would be 16.8 now our airplane will stall at 56.8 knots and that could really catch you off guard and that's just another reason why we don't want to overbank the airplane that higher bank will lead to a higher load which will lead to a higher stall speed be sure to check out the pilot's handbook of aeronautical knowledge so you can practice running these charts for yourself once again get your free digital copy from the faa's website or a cheap paperback copy from my links below you won't find better study material on your road to becoming a pilot