On Mar 12, 8:31*pm, " wrote:
On Mar 12, 8:15*pm, Sam Spade wrote:

wrote:
If you want to indeed circle to land (assuming a CAT A airplane) you
indeed do not want to leave 840 until *after* the MAP if you want to
land on 35. *But, if you want to land on 17 and have that runway in
sight a mile or two prior to the airport, why would you remain at 840
instead of leaving 840 in order to make a normal descent for landing on 17?

I have to cross mid field, downwind base and final. *500 AGL is close
enough to terra firma for me.

One of my boring videos will show you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFR8zmSpIgE

Start at 4:40 and if this doesn't make it clear, I don't know what
will.

Just in case Sam you are interested on landing on the 35 end at
minimums and why I hold MDA for my circle to land see
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjPOrMBrQ40

What the video shows real well is that west and south of the field,
the clouds were significantly lower then the north end of the field.
So I had to turn final much sooner so I didn't lose sight of the
field, hence a longer landing. I always have the option of slipping
to dump altitude which in this case I didn't need to do.

Watching both videos in it's entirety will give you insight on how I
run my shop during an approach and as always I do encourage input to
make me a better pilot.