Didnt this thread start about circuit patterns not RIABs.
I have instructed civillian pilots in a 800ft military circuit pattern and although I was dubious at first my conclusion was that it produced a far better handling pilot. It also produced a pilot with better lookout and faster reactions and it was much easier to teach PFLs to these pilots. Also more circuits per hour meant earlier solos etc.
Noticably there were two other things unmentioned so far about oval patterns;
a touch and go was just that, a touch and go not a touch roll and go. The RAF teach go arounds from base leg. as well as final. In the particular circuit i am talking about there were Cessna 150s and Bulldogs, and Chipmunks at the weekend it all went very smoothly. On the otherhand at the other 12 flying schools i have worked at the circuit patterns were chaotic and dangerous but that is the main difference between civillain and military flying, discipline and standardisation. Get three different clubs and you would have three different patterns get three diffferent pilots and you would have another three different patterns even within schools you also have instructors teaching their own way rather than a standard agrred way. Out of all the 13 flying schools only 4 of them had agreed standardised patterns (I was CFI at those!) The thing about an oval is that it is much harder to deviate from a standard pattern. the problem with squares are that the crosswind leg becomes a cross country for some pilots who could never ever make a climbing turn downwind because its against the folk lore taught by some instructors
when i eventually owned my own school we taught both ovals and square circuits and each student elected to do an oval or a square in the pattern they were in at the time, allowing for other circuit traffic.
I got some criticism from the other schools on the airfield but interstingly when the cloud base got low they all still flew their students using 500 ft ovals. We always made a point of teaching both patterns but gave the student the choice of which to fly--no student ever preffered squares and why would they ovals are easier, quicker, safer and cheaper!
Teaching PFLs at the airfield was a doddle as all you did was join the oval circuit at 1500 ft downwind (the glide app oval circuit was 1500 ft agl)
the one argument you could use against ovals is that military student pilots are of a higher standard and ability that there civillian equivalents and therefore need more time and space. I beleived that till i started teaching ovals but I found that all the students i had over this 3 year period had no problems at all with ovals except when they were on dual land away cross country. they just couldnt belive that the aircraft on the horizon outside the ATZ was actually in the circuit!!!