Hi,
I am currently a 31 hr student at White Waltham and totally agree with every thing Simjock and FlyingForFun said in their previous posts.
I clearly remember an incident that happened to me on my 2nd solo flight as a result of flying a wide circuit.
Just as I turned on to base leg, I saw an aircraft in front of me that caused me great concern because I was too close behind him. I had maintained a good lookout and to my knowledge only two aircraft accompanied me in the circuit: one in the overhead and the other who was descending on the deadside while I was crosswind. I was prepared to do a go-around if the aircraft hadn’t vacated the runway in time. Luckily he did and I managed to land with my heart intact.
When I got back to Operations, I was discussing the situation with my FI when all of a sudden another FI – who was doing his paperwork at the time – admitted that he was the pilot and told me that my circuit was very wide.
The reason for flying wide was down to: flying an unfamiliar circuit – White Waltham has six; Being taught to stick to noise abatement procedures; A high workload and also coming to terms with flying without someone in the right seat.
Part of the procedure for runway 03 at White Waltham which was the runway in use that day is: upon achieving a safe height, turn left to track about 010° to avoid both Foundation Park and Ridgeway School before turning crosswind.
In my case, I was put out by the fact that my crosswind would be naturally shorter than normal due to the 10° turn to the left after departure. Instead, I flew a longer crosswind than I should have for that particular circuit.
In addition to following noise abatement procedures, I think pilots and students in particular should follow the advise from authors like Jeremy Pratt and Trevor Thom which is to use the wingtips and tail of the aircraft to establish correct positioning in the circuit.