"Kyle Boatright" wrote in message
. ..

"Viperdoc" wrote in message
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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.

I had a P51 in the pattern at Oshkosh with a Breezy in front of me. The
tower had me on the same downwind at co-altitude with about a 150kt overtake
and I couldn't get a word in edgewise. (Oshkosh can be a real problem if you
need a quick head's up to ATC about something and can't key the mike for the
traffic noise.
Anyway, I was caught between a rock and a hard place obviously since I
figured if I sliced up the Breezy it would really ding my prop and probably
really **** off the Breezy guy.
I had to alter my downwind drastically or over run the Breezy . I had full
flaps on the airplane, was way behind the power curve, and nibbling with my
CL max carrying about 45 inches and had to do something quick and on my own.
I could see the Breezy guy looking back over his shoulder like I was a T Rex
about to have him for lunch.
I was clear on my right side and altered enough to extend, just as the tower
broke in and asked me why I WAS extending. I told them the guy in the Breezy
was about to have a heart attack or an 11 foot 2 inch Hamilton Standard
24D50 prop up his butt if I didn't extend! :-)
Moral is that in a controlled VFR pattern that's busy, you comply, but never
blindly!!
Dudley Henriques