Flying the pattern also means understanding who's ahead or behind you. It's
unrealistic to expect a G-V fly a pattern behind a guy in a 150.

Both of my planes have a difficult time flying a pattern with a 150- I need
to be at least at 100, and preferably 120k. Otherwise I'll be hanging on the
prop in slow flight, and SOL if the engine quits, or in the other case, well
below Vyse if an engine quits. Neither is a good situation.

Yet, flying a wider and faster pattern commensurate with the safer speeds
often leads me to be either cut off, or having to do S turns for the 150
pilot doing a five mile 65K final.

The same guy who flies the 5 mile final also tends to use all of the 5500
foot runway to turn off as a matter of convenience.

So, how about thinking about the people behind you as well as in front of
you in the pattern?


"Matt Barrow" wrote in message
...

"Kyle Boatright" wrote in message
. ..
This evening, one careless, clueless, oblivious, inattentive (choose one)
pilot made a shambles of the pattern at my home field for 10 minutes.

It was 20 minutes before dusk and the flock was returning home - there
were aircraft in the pattern and at least 3 inbound. A guy (in a Cessna)
announced a midfield crossover entry into the pattern for a touch and go,
but indicated that he'd have to extend his downwind because he was 500'
above pattern altitude. Fair enough, I thought - the guy is gonna fly a
normal downwind + 1/2 mile.

Long story short, the guy flew a normal downwind plus 2.5 miles, and his
downwind was literally a mile wide to boot...

So the airplane behind him (another Cessna) had to fly the same B-52
pattern, the Grumman behind *him* had to fly a B-47 pattern, and I
followed with a B-29 pattern. Two inbound aircraft recognized that the
traffic pattern was a mess and opted to do loiter outside the pattern to
let things correct themselves.

Then the original Cessna flying doofus flew an abbreviated upwind and
crosswind after his touch and go and cut off the folks who had loitered
waiting for everything to sort itself out. Aargh! I don't think I'll
ever understand this type of pilot...

The question in my mind was... Did the Cessna flying doofus even realize
that A) he was flying a dumb and dangerous pattern, being outside of
gliding range from the field, or that B) he caused a bad chain reaction
in the pattern.??

As I said: It only takes one.
One?

http://www.avweb.com/news/pilotlounge/189177-1.html

February 20, 2005

The Pilot's Lounge #84: Arrogance, Etiquette And Big Fat Traffic
Patterns

'Are you going to land here or keep going on downwind into the next
county?' It's painful to be in the pattern behind a pilot who thinks a
stabilized final approach in a Cessna means a two-mile final. But just
what are the rules and safe practices regarding the size of a traffic
pattern? AVweb's Rick Durden looks into it this month in The Pilot's
Lounge.

By Rick Durden, Columnist