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I am curious as to how many aircraft could safely operate in a "standard" circuit pattern and stay within the 2 or 2.5 nm radius of an ATZ of a typical GA field?
It's an interesting question, Bingo, and the answer would depend, very much, on what you consider to be a 'standard circuit'
If we consider a few commonly followed conventions we could suggest a standard cirtcuit to be, straight ahead to 500' agl, left turn 90 degrees, level at 1,000', limmediately left 90 degrees again, 90 left again at the end of the downwind leg when the threshold is about 45 degrees behind us, descending on base, to be wings level after the final turn at 500', final approach as required to land, making a go around decision at 200'agl, and vacating the runway, or performing a 'touch and go'
This would take aroud 6 mins per circuit to complete in a typical training aircraft like a C152, or PA38, and would be just about contained within a standard 2 mile radius ATZ.
Spacing in the cirtcuit would be determined by the need for aircraft on final to have a clear runway at 200'agl, so a min of 30 secs apart.
Assuming that all the aircraft were doing 'touch and goes', this would mean that our 'standard circuit', under ideal conditions, with perfect discipline and accurate flying, could accommodate a maximum of 12 identical aircraft.
MJ
I wouldn't fancy flying in that circuit...