It only takes one...

"Kyle Boatright" wrote in message
. ..
In my local area, there are enough public and private fields that one is in
range 80% or more of the time if I'm above 5,000' AGL.

That makes me feel a little better about leaving the pattern. As the old
farts say, the question isn't "if?", but "when?" the engine will fail. I try
and stack the odds in my favor if the answer to the question is "now"...

Then I guess you don't fly out of a field that is under class C airspace.
We have to fly about five miles away from the field before we can climb above
1200 feet. There are no landing fields in that five miles. Even worse, that
means that all of the light plane traffic is concentrated in about 200' of
altitude, greatly increasing the chances of two (or more) planes trying to
occupy the same dab of airspace at the same time. FAA's reason for this
arrangement is to "increase safety".

Still, we seem to survive.

Vaughn

wrote:

I'm glad to say I've never screwed up in a pattern.

Me either.

But I don't count the time I totally brain farted and flew a right
pattern (vs. the published standard left) at my home base. I correctly
made radio calls of RIGHT downwind, RIGHT base, and final. G

I've been ribbed enough about it that it no longer counts!

I correctly
made radio calls of RIGHT downwind, RIGHT base, and final. G

I've been ribbed enough about it that it no longer counts!

Barry, I frequently fly RH pattern to the unused cross wind runway..
Of course I announce my intentions and keep a sharp eye for anyone
that might get confused by me... But this IS an uncontrolled
airport... Training maneuvers and practicing emergency procedures is
legal... No one ribs me about it they don't even mention it...

denny

On 5/1/2007 11:12:37 PM, "Mortimer Schnerd, RN" wrote:

I'm not arguing with the general point of your posting but I will take a
poke at your assertion about being outside of gliding range of the field.

Isn't this guideline based on the theory that there is a higher chance of
engine failure during changes in power settings? A reduction of power while
entering the pattern, I recall reading, presents a statistically higher
chance of engine failure than while at cruise.

--
Peter

Denny wrote:
I correctly
made radio calls of RIGHT downwind, RIGHT base, and final. G

I've been ribbed enough about it that it no longer counts!

Barry, I frequently fly RH pattern to the unused cross wind runway..

Understood.

I did it to the in-use runway at an uncontrolled field, with other guys
in the published pattern. They took it in stride, and spaced me right in.

What I did still deserved a "poke" or two, because of the intentions
involved. G

"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

We shall term this the "McNicoll effect", for while being entirely
within the bounds of the law, was being a complete ass and mucking it up
for the rest of us.

Excellent. Well done.

Actually, I think you are really on to something here. This newly
coined phenomenon could explain much about what happens in the air --
and on the ground.

In fact, this "McNicoll Effect" just might explain everything that is
wrong with our society -- and even the world! There is so much of
this sort of thing going on -- often completely unexplained -- that
some sort of a blanket explanation was just begging to be discovered.
And you did it!

Dang, Gnu, you may have just tipped the sociological and political
world on its ear today -- good show!

:-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

On Wed, 2 May 2007 08:19:42 -0400, "Peter R."
wrote:


Isn't this guideline based on the theory that there is a higher chance of
engine failure during changes in power settings? A reduction of power while
entering the pattern, I recall reading, presents a statistically higher
chance of engine failure than while at cruise.

Of course you change your power at the beginning of a climb, top of
the climb, beginning of a descent, and the bottom of the descent. If
you are flying IFR you will do this a number of times and you may not
even be able to see the ground much less be looking for a good landing
spot. If you are flying an ILS approach you are certainly not within
gliding distance of a runway.

But take heart. As has been pointed out many times most accidents are
not the result of mechanical failure.

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

On 5/2/2007 9:47:13 AM, ArtP wrote:

Of course you change your power at the beginning of a climb, top of
the climb, beginning of a descent, and the bottom of the descent

Not in my case. My turbo-normalized Bonanza is typically run at WOT from take
off thru approach/pattern (depending on IFR or VFR and also depending on how
turbulent the air is). The first throttle reduction would be just before the
IAF or a few miles outside the traffic pattern.


--
Peter