Some alternative airmanship points of view:
- The less time we spend in a CTAF mixing it with other aircraft, the lower the risk is to the 70 odd people behind us.
- We can usually only backtrack from the runway ends, and our taxi speed is limited to 25kts. In many places we operate (Emerald, Bundy are examples), if we join the circuit to land 06 or 14 at those airports, it will mean rolling through, turning around, backtracking at 25kts for up to 2km. The whole process from mid downwind to being clear of the runway may be up to 5 or 6 minutes. A straight in opposite direction approach may require someone to extend downwind but it won't be for that long because we'll just vacate at the taxiway and be out of your way.
- Straight in approaches allow us to fly with autopilot coupled most of the way down the approach. This leaves both pilots free to maintain a higher level of situational awareness than if we fly a circuit. Also assists us to ensure a stabilised approach as per ICAO's guidance.
- Any tailwind component we choose to accept will only be accepted if it is within all of the relevant performance limitations, and additionally does not require any additional braking compared to going the other way. Keep in mind that the landing performance of most turboprops is quite incredible considering their size. Braking requirements can be offset by considering different flap settings and/or propeller RPM settings for the landing.
- Jaba mentioned pax comfort. Firstly, see above - it is not going to be even noticeable to them. But secondly, pax comfort ranks below pax safety and if I feel a straight in is safer, we're doing it.
- The Q400 is a medium wake turbulence category aeroplane and having us fly around the circuit in front of you puts the responsibility for separation on to the pilots behind us, and often they seem blissfully unaware.
- On the pax comfort subject, buzzing around at 1500ft in summer is no more fun in a Dash than it is in a Jabiru. A straight in allows us to get through those bumps a bit quicker.
There are many reasons why a straight in approach (potentially with a tailwind component) is preferred by turboprop operators, and it has a lot less to do with time saving than you might think. And absolutely nothing to do with ego as suggested earlier.
Nobody can excuse the poor airmanship of people muscling their way in and ordering aircraft around but I really don't hear of that happening very often these days.