EGBJ - Gloucestershire Joining Procedure

[Barney_Gumble]

Hi Folks,

A fellow flyer, myself and our trusted Cessna steed flew to Gloucestershire yesterday for a visit. Never been there before, nice aerodrome, landing fees fine with a reduction for fuel uplift; we will pay a return visit in the future, however.....

I got a little confused with the join. The active was 22 with a RH circuit and we were approaching from the South East (i.e. the dead side). We were cleared to join overhead at 2000' AAL and descend on the dead side.

So what we did was cross the active at 2000' AAL then keeping our height did a 180 degree turn back over the active then descended to circuit height of 1000' AAL on the dead side and joined cross wind behind an aircraft on a down wind leg.

On reflection, after we landed, this seemed a strange and perhaps inefficient join....perhaps it might have been better to descend to circuit height and join cross wind directly without the 180 degree turn and descent.

I think there must have been a reason and the only one I can come up with is that the circuit direction changes occasionally and they were about to change from RH to LH circuit direction and wanted to avoid any possibility of conflicting traffic. I remember the aircraft that took off as we joined was indeed given take off clearence with a left turn.

If any EGBJ flyers out there have any experience or reasons for this I would be happy to hear. It wasn't an issue, I am just interested....

Regards

Barney

[Spitoon]

I don't fly from BJ but was the circuit busy? If so this might have been seen as the best wat to integrate your aircraft. Speaking as a controller, bringing an aircraft to the overhead means that I know where it is and can watch where it is relative to the other traffic.

[Kingy]

I did my training at Stav. They do prefer overhead joins, often the airfield is very busy with 5 A/C in the curcuit being quite common. I think the tower like to be visual with joining A/C so they can slot them in to the curcuit around the students. It is always worth requesting a different join but, if the workload is high you will often get refused. Another thing to bear in mind is that there is a chopper curcuit operating on the north side of the field - this used to be non radio, so it's always worth have a good look for these.

All in all my favoutite 'big' airfield with helpful ATC, loadsa runways and a busy curcuit to keep you on your toes - I was amazed how sleepy other airfields were when doing my XCs...

Kingy

[matspart3]

Barney
What you did was 100% correct, provided your 180 turn was to the right (because it's a right hand circuit)

The overhead join is our 'default' join and is usually offered by Approach to visitors or students to enable them to orientate themselves in the overhead. If you wanted to join crosswind or even left base, you can always ask...Approach will co-ordinate with Tower and we'll do our best to fit you in. The circuit does get very busy but we have radar and an ATM which really helps keep things moving and enables us to accomodate direct joins very easily.

As Kingy says, there is a helicopter circuit which operates inside the fixed wing circuit up to 750' QFE without 'positive' RT, but you will be advised of all fixed wing and rotary traffic with your joining instructions

Glad you enjoyed your visit, come again soon, bring loads of mates!!!

[Barney_Gumble]

matspart3

Thanks for the confirmation on that. Indeed we turned to the right in accordance with circuit direction.

I will certainly return it was a good flight and services at your aerodrome were good value considering the size of the operation, and the bar was nice also; I would recommend it to others.

See you again soon. Maybe a PPRuNe Private Flyers Fly-In some day....

Barney