Turns One of the most encompassing and important parts of BFM, of any type, is the turn. To be able to develop competency and skill in BFM, you must understand some basic concepts of turns. We will discuss positional energy, turn radius and rate, corner velocity, and turns in the vertical. Kinetic energy is directly related to the speed or velocity that the aircraft is traveling. This does not mean stored like in batteries.
Potential energy is directly proportional to the altitude of the aircraft.
The easiest way to explain this is to visualize a jet at 30,000 feet. This pilot has the option to put the jet into a dive, thus increasing his airspeed. The higher he is flying, the more speed he can generate in a dive. An aircraft at low altitude of 5,000 feet has much less room to increase speed in a dive. Likewise you can trade speed for potential energy.