"Viperdoc" wrote in message
...
On the other hand, pilots that fly slower airplanes should also be aware
that they do not need to fly patterns the same size as someone in a 747.
You do not need a five mile final in a 152- it does tend to back up
everyone else in the pattern.

A lot of it goes back to training. One of the local flight schools from a
towered field teaches B-52 style approaches in their C-172's. That makes
sense for someone who is just attempting his/her first landings, but once
the student has the landing thing figured out, the instructor(s) really,
really need to retrain their students to fly a tighter pattern. They don't.

When they come to my non-towered home field, it makes for a lot of cranky
people in the pattern.

Something that puts a big grin on my face is watching someone at SnF or
Oshkosh *really* fly their airplane in the pattern. The tower asks for a
close tight base and final and the pilot complies, flying a perfectly
coordinated, tight base and short final ending with the airplane rolling out
right on the runway centerline and in position to set the airplane down
exactly where the controller has requested. I love that kind of thing,
regardless of aircraft type.

As opposed to the guy who blunders around, drops to 5' AGL at the runway
threshold with the tower saying "Cessna, fly your airplane 2,000' down the
runway and land on the orange dot". In the meantime, the Cessna is flying
at 5' AGL, wiggling and waggling at minimum airspeed and a half dozen
aircraft are scrambling to maintain adequate spacing behind the bozo who is
flying his Cessna at 45 knots in ground effect.