Saturday at LFAC
I was instructed to orbit on final for runway 14.....
1 ahead, a bit lower (and slower) than me, but rather than go around and do a full circuit, ATC asked me to do a orbit
so I left the gear down in the Aztec, I only had about 20 degrees of flap selected, so I increased power, accelerated to 120 mph, and did the orbit. If I had not felt it was safe to do, then I would have gone around.
there is a difference between orbiting in such situations at a controlled field and doing orbits on final where there is only an A/G.
If people do not feel it is safe to do as instructed, they should say say so. Sadness here is that the young student might not have had the confidence to tell the ATCO that he was going to disregard the instructions.