standard traffic pattern at uncontrolled airports

[jim cooper]

This may be 800 feet, 1000 feet or 1000 feet plus field elevation. What do some of you use at your local airport? JC

[Ragwing nut]

Re: standard traffic pattern at uncontrolled airports

I do beleive it is in the pilot manual, 800 agl and left hand pattern

[WigetAMT]

Re: standard traffic pattern at uncontrolled airports

Read FAA-H-8083-3A, Airplane Flying Handbook chapter 7.

[3Dreaming]

Re: standard traffic pattern at uncontrolled airports

Look in the Airport Facility Directroy. It will give traffic pattern altitude (TPA). If it is not listed it is 1000 feet above field elevation. Also propper entry is mid field on the downwind at a 45 degree angle. Exit straight out or 45 degree turn to the left. All turns should be to the left according to regulations , unless noted otherwise for the airport or runway.

[bashibazouk]

Re: standard traffic pattern at uncontrolled airports

Date: 8126193 AC No.90-66A Subject: RECOMMENDED ‘STANDARD TRAFFIC PATTERNS AND PRACTICES FOR AERONAUTICAL OPERATIONS AT AIRPORTS WITHOUT OPERATING CONTROL TOWERS

link

(For what it's worth, a "45 to a downwind" is not a leg of a pattern and does nothing to help others listening on freq discern where you are. A cardinal direction from the field and altitude along with your planned leg of entry is far more helpful. Eg. "Taylorcraft 24369 is 5 miles South at 1,000, planning left traffic runway 25." "Left 45" might sound cool but it is useless. I hear it every day I fly and it's like freakin' nails on a chalkboard. Don't get me started on "any traffic in the area, please advise..." Radio transmissions should be like checkrides.)

[3Dreaming]

Re: standard traffic pattern at uncontrolled airports

I agree that a radio call before you get to the airport with your intentions is a good thing, but the 45 to down wind is not for those listening on the radio. It is so people know where they should be looking for traffic entering the pattern. I know people enter the pattern from all different directions, but I teach my students to do it the way recommended by the FAA. The DE I use likes it that way.

[flyguy]

Re: standard traffic pattern at uncontrolled airports

Many (most?) fields in California are right traffic for one runway and left for the other, due to being at the outer edge of a populated area. Same for fields with two parallel runways (bunch of those.)

Don't see anything wrong with calling in as being on a 45 degree entry to the specific runway downwind leg. Good idea to include how far out, altitude, anything else that lets the other pilots know where to look. True, "I'm on the 45 for downwind" doesn't quite cut it.
DC

[Eric Tyson]

Re: standard traffic pattern at uncontrolled airports

I always call in 5 miles out and if no one is working the airfield pattern I cross mid field to check the sock then go for the left hand pattern.

[maximumvmo]

Re: standard traffic pattern at uncontrolled airports

+1 for the AFD. Don't forget that depending on the airspace a radio may not be required...nor should it be the primary means of collision avoidance. We have a few aircraft that routinely come in non-radio (cause they don't have one). If we are going to add pet peeves, I'll throw in my disdain for those who practice their B-52 patterns. If you can't make the runway if your engine quits on downwind...you're too dang far out!!

Happy Flying

[lfries]

Re: standard traffic pattern at uncontrolled airports

My pet peeve is all of the operators who work at control towers then come to our uncontrolled field and think that straigh ins arre OK and refuse to give way to pattern traffic.

[jim cooper]

Re: standard traffic pattern at uncontrolled airports

Personally I think EVERYTHING flying should have a radio and USE IT! Most accidents (midairs) occur near an airport. The T-Craft I used to own was involved in a fatal accident near an airport, no radios in either. Especially if one does a straight in approach! Long finals are another accident waiting to happen. I was taught to keep the pattern as small as possible so I could make the field if the engine quit, to speak CLEARLY my intentions 4-5 miles out, again as I grew close and state my entering the pattern to the runway, report base and final. Worked pretty well for 50 years.JC (Thanks for your replys!)

[N96337]

Re: standard traffic pattern at uncontrolled airports

Personally I think EVERYTHING flying should have a radio and USE IT!

All the radios in the world don't substitute for keeping your eyes OUT of the cockpit, where they should be!!!!!!!
John

[Acroeric]

Re: standard traffic pattern at uncontrolled airports

I fly my radio equipped airplane at fields with lots of flight school activity. Most teach their students to announce " Cessna blah blah taxiing to the ramp" or "Cessna blah blah taxiing to the run up area". I am glad there is not a wal mart on the field. They fly patterns that are too far from the runway as well. I am old school. I use my eyes to avoid collisions and only talk enough to give useful information. My experience is that radio useage is being substituted for a good visual scan. I see it all the time when riding with new pilots. They are taught to fly bomber approaches, look at instruments, rely on GPS for everything, flaps on downwind, another notch on base, another notch on final, this many RPM's, this much trim etc. My issue is that we do not teach good stick and rudder skills. We teach how to fly an airplane, not how to fly airplanes.
When I fly with a new tailwheel wanna-be, the first thing I do is go practice slow flight with them. In a matter of seconds I can tell if they have any feet at all. If not it is dutch rolls for the first flight, MCA and stalls the next, then takeoffs the 3rd.
Guess I am venting a little. I just feel that a radio is an extra instrument and is not a primary one. I have flown across the US without a radio/ GPS and felt totally safe. If your engine quits anywhere in the pattern there is no excuse for not making the field. Use a slip on final, aim for the first 10 feet of the runway and fly the airplane, don't let it fly you. Aviate, navigate, communicate. Ok- I'm done venting.

[flybikefarm]

Re: standard traffic pattern at uncontrolled airports

Read the NTSB report of the 1997 Quincy, Il. Beech 1900 and King Air accident. They both had radios. See and be seen, don't rely on the other guy. George

[Mark Julicher]

Re: standard traffic pattern at uncontrolled airports

"I just feel that a radio is an extra instrument and is not a primary one."

Hear Hear! The microphone is not a primary flight control. Ya gotta keep your Italians in the proper perspective -- fly with with the Bernoulli controller and and not the Marconi controller.