"Peter Clark" wrote in message
...
But isn't a straight-in approach part of a perfectly valid VFR pattern?
Why
bother flying around the town when you're already lined up for finals?
The way it was explained to me, if there are already aircraft in the
pattern, doing a straight in would likely cut them off, and would
increase exposure to a base-to-final/straight-in final midair (I'm
assuming this is also attempting to comply with 91.113(g), don't get
lower on a straight in just to have right-of-way).

I see what you mean, though joining on any leg runs the risk of cutting up
someone on the preceding leg (e.g. if you join on an extended downwind, you
have to keep your eye out for people on their crosswind leg).

I guess the main difference with joining on final is that when you're within
three miles or so of the runway, you are probably descending and so someone
on base has to look in three dimensions (i.e. down as well as sideways) in
order to spot you, thus increasing the risk of them not seeing you.

Sure enough, one reads incident reports (mostly near misses, but not always)
of conflicts between aircraft on straight-in approaches and those that have
come in on the circuit. In most cases, though, the problems are related to
human factors - not least confusion/bolshieness over the statement that
priority should be given to an aircraft on its final approach. That is, in
many such cases the straight-in aircraft knows there's traffic in the
circuit, but deliberately adopts the "I'm on final so the other guy can go
whistle" attitude - illegally, because to put themselves in this position
they've broken the rule that when entering the circuit/pattern, you
shouldn't get in the way of other aircraft already in it.

With the application of some common sense, though, straight-in approaches
can be perfectly safe. A good lookout on the part of both pilots, combined
with the application of "blind" radio calls (just because you don't have ATC
doesn't mean you shouldn't talk just in case someone's listening - I do it
all the time and it's amazing how many times someone replies who you hadn't
seen) should do the trick. The only downside is that if you're a Cessna
pilot, you can't really see up and left because someone put a wing in the
way, so the lookout has to be top-notch on the part of the straight-in
pilot.

D.