"ManhattanMan" wrote:

I had an occassion where I entered downwind, had already passed the
field, only other traffic was a guy still several miles out on a
straight in final, and the tower cleared me for immediate landing,

I've had the same thing happen. Tower can tell if you're faster and flying a tighter pattern. In my case, if I
recall, he cleared me for the touch and go without me asking for the shortcut. Maybe it's their way of
sendng a not so subtle message to the guys flying the huge patterns.

Mike