Bob,

I doubt anyone tried to fly a bozo pattern. Sometimes we get into a bad
situation and barely scrape home and do the best we can to salvage the
situation. Hopefully the "offending" pilot would apologize to all at
the airport for throwing the proverbial wrench into the works. I do
recall thermalling over a mall parking lot in Boulder once having
mistakenly followed a crow to the back side of the Flat Irons. I
thought it was a hawk and immediately regretted my decision. I don't
recall the pattern I flew that day.

On 8/1/2016 9:55 AM, Bob Whelan wrote:
On 8/1/2016 9:34 AM, Tango Eight wrote:
Snip...

There are times when a big "bomber" pattern are necessary and safer;
there are also times when you have to get on the ground as fast as
possible. A competently trained pilot can adapt to whatever
situation is
encountered and fly accordingly.

kirk 66

Completely agree...

So: what type of traffic pattern allows the greatest degree of
flexibility
to meet the needs of a wide variety of situations (traffic, weather,
etc.)?

Is this a trick question?

Where I'm going with this: the guy who has made up his mind 5 (or 500)
miles out what sort of pattern he is going to fly ("I always...") and
sticks to that plan like glue is a pain in the ass (at best).

best, Evan

Completely agree with the PITA bit...nor do I see any fundamental
conflict between the above two views. "Choose wisely," is a great
aviation mantra.

FWIW, the only two times I've been "surprised" in the pattern at
Boulder (CO, described earlier in the thread) was from bozo (as in
both were experienced enough and "should have known better [than to do
what they did])" glider pilots, one a visitor, one a local, who
entered the pattern (very) late (and low) from non-standard directions
for prevailing conditions, necessitating I alter my pattern plans, for
separation and safety. "Properly educating" locals is relatively
straightforward; the visitor never reappeared & I have no idea if he
learned anything useful from his self-inflicted "idiot's pattern." It
easily could have had something of a bad snowball effect, depending on
the skills and experience of the others in the pattern just then (and
there were 2 more in addition to me, as I recall).

Why anyone would thoughtfully choose to fly those sorts of patterns
under busy, benign-weather, conditions is beyond my way of thinking...

Bob W.

--
Dan, 5J