I turned on to crosswind at 600' instead of 500' to give me a little more spacing on downwind.
flying for 400' of climb is less than for 500' of climb, ergo a shorter x-wind leg
I realize that he misread my post and thought I was turning onto crosswind at 400'.
Not the case. Before I begin, please do not take this as a personal attack. If you wait until 600' AGL to turn x-wind, (the presmption being you are waiting until 1000' AGL to turn downwind) that means you have only 400' left to climb. To climb 400' takes less time than to climb 500', right? This means you don't travel as far over the ground, hence you turn onto downwind at a
closer distance from the runway.
In any case to advise that height of turning x-wind will affect your spacing is just plain wrong. The downwind turn should be made with reference to the runway.
Feel free to PM me if you still require further clarification on this explanation. As I said, there is no malice intended here and this thread is getting messy.