I was just reading and nodding my head to the many recent opinions here when I was reminded of my last sim. As part of the Routine schedule for that session we had to fly a visual circle to land in accordance with our company SOP ' S. I'm sure that ours are much the same as most and involve the usual elements of 45 degree angles and counting seconds in various directions whilst remembering to add on/take off degrees and seconds for wind not to mention remembering to descend at a given rate depending on height whilst using various flight director modes as a back up!! My somewhat convoluted point here is that, without disregarding the obvious dangers inherent with a procedure like this (as highlighted by accident numbers), it seems to me that our industry has totally over complicated this manoeuvre. I haven't even drawn attention to the circle to land mist approach procedure which, from any position after late down wind is ridiculously confusing (far more so than the Newcastle case of this thread).
We as pilots should all be able to fly a VISUAL circuit and perhaps even without over complicating it with numbers and angles. It is the first thing I learned in a C152. The whole idea is that one keeps an eye out of the window at the runway and flys the plane how ever big or complicated it may be. Perhaps this SOP over complication (and I realise that there must be a SOP) optimises the whole modern approach to our job. Too many words and procedures and not enough back to basics...