In article uCnwd.511240$wV.477723@attbi_s54,
Jay Honeck wrote:
Over the years, I have posted several diatribes against Class D (so-called)
"controlled" airspace. In my opinion, having guys standing in a control
tower with binoculars, trying to "control" air traffic is, at best, a
ludicrous throw-back to a simpler time. At worst, it's dangerous.

The right controllers make all the difference. I wonder if part
of your local issue is that there is alot of uncontrolled airspace,
so pilots are not as practiced dealing with controlled airspace.

I fly in the Bay Area, so we have lots of controlled airspace (B,
C, D). I fly out of Palo Alto (PAO, Class D, one 2500ft runway).
I often fly into Livermore (LVK, Class D, two runways, 5200ft and
2600ft).

I've been #12 in the pattern at Palo Alto, and other then a five
mile final, it was smooth sailing. I've been #3 in the pattern at
Livermore and the tower has lost track of which plane was which
and given conflicting instructions. Even though Palo Alto is much
busier, I worry more about flying into Livermore. The guys in SFO
tower have it easy. Norcal Approach does all the hard stuff for
them. Most of the time, the SFO tower guys sound bored. One time,
they asked a departing FedEx DC-10 to make an early turn after
departure, since they wanted to take some pictures. It was just
before sunset, and the light was perfect, unfortunately, I didn't
have my camera with me. My view from 1500ft over SFO would have
made a great photo.

As we arrived in the pattern on a right downwind, with Mary acting as PIC,
we were number three to land behind a 182 coming into the pattern on a left
downwind. This always presents a problem, IMHO, since traffic is hard to
spot when you're flying opposing patterns. There were numerous targets in
the area, all trying to land at once, the tower controller had his hands
full, and he was putting guys into 360 degree turns for spacing.

Palo Alto runs left and right patterns pretty much continually.
If the tower is keeping track of where the traffic it, it should
be easy to spot the traffic on the opposite downwind.

A typical call is "N12345, #4, cleared to land, traffic you are
following is the Cessna on left downwind abeam the tower". That
makes it really easy to spot the traffic.

I think when the pattern is busy, and there is more traffic inbound,
extending the pattern is safer and easier then having planes doing
360s. By the time one plane does a 360, the next plane in the
pattern will have caught up, so then that one has to do a 360, etc.

Having planes fly a longer pattern keeps the pattern flowing better,
IMHO. That way, new planes arriving in the pattern just go to the
end of the line, and the tower doesn't have to try and coordinate
having every other plane doing 360s.

One nice feature at PAO is that when you turn base at five miles
out, you are over two 8000ft runways (Moffett Field NUQ), so even
on a five mile final, you are mostly within gliding range of a
runway.

John
--
John Clear - http://www.panix.com/~jac