Advice - Tight Circuits
Join Date: Oct 2001
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A tight circuit in a small trainer such as a Cessna or Piper is about one minute from touch and go to touch and go...but you have to have the airport all to yourself.
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I was taught to make a climbing (10-15AOB) turn after reaching 500' on the upwind leg. If all goes well I'd end up reaching downwind at or nearly at 1000'. T/O flaps would come down once established downwind and turn base when the trailing edge of my wing is about 3 wing chords from the threshold. Full flaps would normally come down just after passing 400' on finals.
Then again it's all pretty leisurely as I have an 11000' runway (RWY21/03 WMKL) to practice on - the traffic's no fun though. There can be 4 a/c holding in the circuit to allow a scheduled arrival to land (normally an a320/a330/b737) plus 2 more aircraft holding in the training areas and 1 more somewhere west of the airfield. Add the controller telling you to maintain the upwind leg for 2 minutes due to traffic - when there are mountains right at the end of RWY03.
Then again it's all pretty leisurely as I have an 11000' runway (RWY21/03 WMKL) to practice on - the traffic's no fun though. There can be 4 a/c holding in the circuit to allow a scheduled arrival to land (normally an a320/a330/b737) plus 2 more aircraft holding in the training areas and 1 more somewhere west of the airfield. Add the controller telling you to maintain the upwind leg for 2 minutes due to traffic - when there are mountains right at the end of RWY03.
Originally Posted by Chuck Ellsworth
A tight circuit in a small trainer such as a Cessna or Piper is about one minute from touch and go to touch and go...but you have to have the airport all to yourself.
Gliders fly tight patterns too, even though there is no worries about engine failure. Another interesting bit of trivia is that gliders at our club have been known to do T&G's on ridge days. I've never personally witnessed it, or tried it, but have heard of it. I have seen low passes on ridge days before.
-- IFMU
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Circuit height and size is usually determined by location.
Airports, especially controlled ones will almost always require a circuit size to fit the traffic using it.
Sea plane training on the other hand lends its self to making your circuit fit the training desired, I find a 300 foot above the water and three minute circuit to be optimum for training.
Airports, especially controlled ones will almost always require a circuit size to fit the traffic using it.
Sea plane training on the other hand lends its self to making your circuit fit the training desired, I find a 300 foot above the water and three minute circuit to be optimum for training.
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Circuit height is also dependent on airfield elevation...I did my initial training on an airfield 5000ft above sea level in a cessna 150, and many a time we rarely got to circuit height given the hot and high conditions.
If I were to try and make my circuits smaller I would just ensure, as other posters have eluded, that all your turns are not too tight and that you're well away from the stall. Which incidentally doesn't mean that you must fly the whole thing at 50'!
What I can say is . . . practice and the more comfortable you feel the better you'll become and of course never be overconfident. I was once, luckily it was on my BMX when I was a kid.
If I were to try and make my circuits smaller I would just ensure, as other posters have eluded, that all your turns are not too tight and that you're well away from the stall. Which incidentally doesn't mean that you must fly the whole thing at 50'!
What I can say is . . . practice and the more comfortable you feel the better you'll become and of course never be overconfident. I was once, luckily it was on my BMX when I was a kid.
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Just to lighten the mood a bit, and please don't try this at home...
The late Air Marshal Sir Kenneth Hayr wrote that when he joined his first Hunter squadron, the lads were having a competition to see who could fly the shortest circuit. He said "Someone got it down to 22 seconds, before the Boss put a stop to it."
Happy days!
The late Air Marshal Sir Kenneth Hayr wrote that when he joined his first Hunter squadron, the lads were having a competition to see who could fly the shortest circuit. He said "Someone got it down to 22 seconds, before the Boss put a stop to it."
Happy days!
