"Ron Natalie" wrote in message
...
EridanMan wrote:
How is this turn any different (at all) then a tight traffic pattern?

Based on what I've seen, that's how it should be handled. Flaps down,
Approach speed, stabalize... determine the winds, and make a nice
crisp, 20 degree-of-bank turn into them.

People screw up the base-to-final turns. Usually they just overshoot and
don't hit anything.

Right. The base-to-final turn isn't usually just short of a row of
skyscrapers.

But there's another difference. Pilots are taught what the proper approach
speed is for landing, what a proper distance is between the downwind leg and
the runway, and proper bank angles (not to exceed thirty degrees for basic
landings, although steep turns are appropriate for more sophisticated
techniques).

So if a pilot used the same parameters for the East River U-turn, it would
work out ok. The potential problem, though, is that a pilot might not
recognize that those parameters are appropriate there. The pilot might
instead maintain an airspeed closer to cruise (but might still use just a
moderate bank angle).

Pilots are taught to perform explicit calculations of, say, the distance
required for landing or takeoff under various circumstances. But does the
private-pilot curriculum include explicit calculation of turning radius as a
function of airspeed and bank angle? (I don't recall encountering that in
the official part of my training, but perhaps I'm just forgetting.)

--Gary