Straight-ins at uncontrolled airports?

In article ,
"Peter R." wrote:

On 2/19/2007 10:04:48 AM, "Tony" wrote:


It looks like they are flying over the runway at or above pattern
altitude, then starting over about the numbers the airplanes in
sequence break off, do a decending 360 onto final then land.

Not meaning to nitpick but just to expand on this a bit, when the F16s at the
guard base on my home airport perform this maneuver, they overfly the runway
at runway heading and what appears to be about 1,500 feet above runway
elevation to the departure end in a single file, turn 180 degrees back to the
left downwind at what appears to be the same altitude, then about adjacent to
the approach end begin a sharp descent and 180 degree turn back to final.

Overhead break with 3 second intervals for spacing.

"Danny Deger" wrote in message
...
I haven't flown in a while, but am in the market for a used plane.

I recalling hearing somewhere that straight-in approaches are now approved
at uncontrolled airports. Is this correct?

Danny Deger

As has been pointed out, there is nothing "illegal" about straight in
approaches. The issue is whether you are really, really sure you are not
disrupting other aircraft operating in the standard pattern.

Also, there are people out there in camouflaged Cubs which don't have
radios. No matter how many calls you make, they won't hear you. So
(hypothetically), your safety could depend on you seeing an aircraft that is
very hard to see against certain backgrounds. Alternately, you are depending
on the pilot of that airplane (which has poor external pattern visibility)
seeing you.

From my perspective, traffic patterns are spooky even without people flying
non-standard patterns. There is simply no way to be 100% certain you've seen
all the traffic. So I do everything I can to increase my chances of seeing
everyone else and making sure they see me. That means standard pattern
entries...