Aviator90 Episode 11

Man: [0:32] Welcome back to this episode of Aviator90 from Angle of
Attack. All right so we’re finally to the great stuff. Now we’re
going to start getting very familiar with operating the aircraft
with a useful set of maneuvers and challenges that’ll sharpen and
build your skills.
[0:49] So, on this episode we’re going to be learning about the
traffic pattern. This is also known as the circuit in some other
countries. We’ll first discuss what makes up a traffic pattern and
the basic way to fly one and then we’ll actually fly one ourselves
so you can visualize it that way.

[1:07] A traffic pattern is made to give pilots a way of knowing
where they are in the airport area and where others are as well so
it can be reported and noted. Otherwise, we’d all be up in the sky
saying “I’m by the water tower next to the road” or “I’m over
McDonald’s setting up for landing on the runway.” That would be one
big mess.

[1:28] So if we as pilots have a structure, we’ll know where to
look when traffic is reported and whether we’re in conflict or not.
Without knowing about the pattern, we can’t build this picture in
our mind and things would be way too chaotic and dangerous.

[1:45] A traffic pattern is made up of five basic legs. These legs
are called the departure, crosswind, downwind, base, and final.
Let’s talk briefly about each leg so you can get a feel for what
they are about. You’ll probably need to come back to this video a
few times, but it should be helpful in getting you familiar with
airport communications and the traffic pattern.

[2:14] Departure leg is just that, it’s the leg in which we are
departing the runway. So if you remember earlier when we did the
take off, that was a perfect example of a departure leg. Basically
you take off, maintain center line and either go straight out or
remain in a pattern.

[2:34] The crosswind leg is where we turn just after the departure
leg. Think of it as we are now turning where we’ll have a
crosswind. It makes sense. We usually turn on the crosswind leg at
300 to 400 feet above ground level also known as 300 or 400 feet
AGL.

[2:56] The crosswind is a pretty short leg. There’s not much more
to it other than it connects the departure leg with the downwind
leg, which you’ll see next here.

[3:06] The downwind leg runs parallel to the runway in the opposite
direction of the departure leg. The wind is pushing us down the
runway, if you will. Therefore, we are downwind. That may help you
visualize it better.

[3:22] During the downwind leg we generally meet our pattern
altitude which is usually 1, 000 feet. This can often be different
depending on the area and requirements for airspace, but for now 1,
000 feet will work fine. With that said, the downwind leg is where
we usually reach this altitude. Now the downwind leg can also be
broken up into a few different parts.

[3:48] Whenever we are flying on this leg, we can report we are
being x numbers on the runway or even say midfield downwind. This
means we are located about halfway down the runway on the downwind
leg. It’s an extra bit of information that allows us pilots to
locate each other much better.

[4:07] Once we are done flying the downwind leg we can enter the
base leg. The base leg connects the downwind with our final
approach. During the last part of the downwind leg and into the
base leg, you are basically getting set up and slowed down for
landing. Think of base in terms of baseball if you’re familiar with
it. We are going to touch the last base before making it to the
home plate and the home plate being final approach.

[4:36] The final approach will take us down to an eventual landing.
Before we move onto flying the pattern let’s talk about pattern
turns. Most of the time your pattern will actually be done with
left-hand turns, as left turns are standard. But it can also be
done with right-hand turns. If you’re confused at this point, no
worries, this will make more sense in a few moments. Now that you
know more about the departure, crosswind, downwind, base and final
legs, it’s time to see it in action.

[5:09] Here we are ready to take off and during this process I will
make the correct radio calls and maybe even make a few extra ones
like midfield downwind and begin the number, so you will kind of
know it looks like. I’ll just show you that so here we go.

[5:24] Here we are in Bowerman , Washington on runway 2-4 today to
do our traffic pattern. This will be a left-hand pattern, so let’s
push up the power and go.

[5:35] All right, as always t, and I’m looking for 55 knots. Here
it comes. I rotate it easy, and we’re off.

[5:54] And now, we can really pitch for that climb. I’m looking for
67 knots today which is Vy, our best rate of climb. But I also want
to track that center line here on the departure leg. Kind of the
easiest way to gauge where you are is with the sun. You can kind of
tell with the glare and everything if you’re turning it on. So keep
that in check here. We’re coming up on 400 feet.

[6:20] We can make our cross-wind call. remember the traffic,
November 6828 Kilo, left cross-wind, runway 24. And we’re doing
this shallow turn here and continuing the climb up to 1, 000 feet
AGL if you remember. Also, keeping in mind that we need to keep a
safe air speed. So, there we go. That’s about 90 degrees there. You
can either gauge that with looking outside the window, or you can
use your directional gyro. Looking good to me. That’s a good
crossing leg, and now we’re going to turn. It gives us plenty of
space.

[7:11] Beramint traffic, November 6828 Kilo, turning left downwind,
runway 24. And we’re now at 1, 000 feet, so I’m going to shallow
that out while I’m still in the turn here, and the reciprocal to
runway 24 is six. So, we’re kind of rolling off in a heading of 62
which is 60 degrees.

[7:36] All right. We’re mid-field now, and I’ll just make a radio
call here. It’s probably not necessary, but I’ll do it anyway.
Beramin traffic, Cessna 6828 Kilo is mid-field, left downwind 24. A
beam the numbers is where we pull back our power here, and when we
start to decay our air speed and start to bring in flaps for the
descend to landing.

[8:06] Looking at the air speed indicator, we have to be in the
white arc in order for flaps. We’re there now. We’re bringing in a
notch of flaps, and now I can let it descend a little more. If you
need to lose that air speed, you can just pull back on the yoke and
keep it level while the power is out and that will decay your air
speed.

[8:28] We’re looking for 45 degrees to the edge of the runway. I
see that now it looks pretty good. We can start our base turn.
Beramin traffic, November 6828 Kilo, it’s left base 24. So, keep it
coming around here. We are just coming back on that 90 degrees
which, again, you can use in your directional gyro, or you can just
gauge it visually. It’s kind of hard with these high wings to gauge
at this point because the wing gets in the way of seeing the
runway, but we do our best.

[9:07] Now, I’m a little high based on the approach indicator. So
what I’m doing is I’m pulling out more power so I lose more
altitude, and I just put another notch of flaps. Now, don’t put the
flaps in when you’re in the turn. Simply put them in when you’re
straight and level between the turns. So, turning final now.
Beramin traffic, Cessna November 6828 Kilo, turning final 24.

[9:34] All right. We’re got red and white. That means we’re all
right, and we’re just going to line up with the runway here, and do
our best to line up.

[9:42] We’ll talk about this landing procedure in the next episode,
but for now I’m going to perform this landing for us. I’m going to
just keep bringing it on down again. This is final, and at this
point we don’t do a whole lot of talking, just focusing on keeping
the correct air speed and getting lined up and performing this
landing to the best of our ability. From here on out, I’m going to
be quiet.

[10:46] All right. That’s it. That was good enough, and now we
basically roll out and vacate the runway unless you’re doing touch
and goes in which case you would pull up your flaps, make sure your
trim is reset. And then perform another takeoff. Now, you have a
better understanding of traffic patterns. I hope you had a blast in
this episode because I know I sure did.

[11:09] Next time, we’re going to get down to the basics of landing
as I mentioned before. Just a few more lessons, and you’ll be ready
to solo. Until next time, throttle on.

Transcription by CastingWords