A Little Busy at YMMB Lately?
Maybe it's just that I'm getting old, but went to do a few circuits at YMMB this afternoon and it was "busy", about a five minute wait at the holding point for 17L for a break in the traffic.
Once airborne, the fun began, all sorts of skill levels, all speeds, all mixed in together in one big happy family presided over by the long suffering tower. There were "two's in together", a succession of people joining from all points of the compass and the odd partial radio failure (ie volume knob turned down).
I don't know how the controllers kept their cool, politely reminding one student that they were required to acknowledge their instructions.
But they are made of stronger stuff than I am, again politely telling one guy that you do NOT decide on your own to make an orbit on base at a GAAP airport without instructions from the Tower. After seeing three aircraft attempting to occupy the same space as a result, I called it a day and landed both out of self preservation and hopefully to make the circuit a little less cluttered.
I assume that as skill levels increase, things will be going more smoothly in a week or two.