Hi Chris,

In a word -- baloney! Read it again:

On Saturday, July 30, 2016 at 12:51:25 AM UTC-4, son_of_flubber wrote:
My default procedure is to set spoilers to 50% open, then adjust pattern shape to make my aim point.

That is a very different SOP / not something I ever do / not something I plan to teach / something I would likely intercept and work on correcting if a pilot brought it to my club.

I like Tom's emphasis on best practices.

See ya,

Evan

Sorry, i totally misread that... That pattern makes no sense to me then if you are just setting an arbitrary airbrake setting and building a pattern around it.