Originally Posted by
DaveReidUK
I think you've actually agreed with my point - though I could have phrased it better. i.e. "you should finish the manoeuvre at the same point in space as you started it at" (if performed correctly as you describe, that is).
I guess I will too have to clarify. I think it depends on the situation.
If the tower asks you to do a 360 on downwind, although it is the normal way of saying it, it is technically incorrect, because they will expect you to rejoin the downwind approximately on the same spot. So, he is actually expecting you to do a "turn around a point". When ATC asked me to make a 360, while on a heading at around FL300 last month, there definitely was no such expectation on my side, and hopefully not on theirs either. Took us close to 4 minutes to complete at 300kts TAS, and 25deg AOB, so at a 60kts wind we would have moved us 4 miles from the starting point. I was not assigned a hold, DME arc or a turn around a point, so did not take the ground into consideration. I did finish the turn at the same point in space with the air as my reference though.