Flying around the runways

A well known basic training exercise for student pilots is flying in the aerodrome traffic pattern, or aerodrome circuit. Without surprise, it consists in realizing a complete circuit around the aerodrome runways.

The goal is making one take-off and one landing separated by four 90 degrees turns in the same direction if possible, so that you finish your circuit where you started it. Not only this exercise is a complete and intense flying training, but also it teaches the student a standard method allowing him to integrate in any aerodrome circuit, positioning himself correctly so that he can land the airplane easily.

On this picture five consecutive aerodrome circuits are shown, and they are far from perfect. The aerodrome circuit has indeed, behind its apparent simplicity, a special esthetic criteria: its rectangularity. The difficulty is in making precise 90 degrees turns, and making them each time at the exact same point. That is not always easy, once factors like the wind or other airplanes flying around you are taken into consideration.

While we are making our noisy turns, people living beneath us are becoming irritated. Sorry !