Traffic Pattern
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{ 64 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey Chris,
I have been watching all of Aviator 90 and I must say this episode is by far the best so far. (All of them where great though ) The presentation is great and the explanation is very clear.
Thanks for making these!
Cody
Thanks Cody! Glad you like it.
Hi Chris
Another cracker of a vid.Jjust one thing how do you know how far to go out on your cross wind leg?.
Mike
Great question, Mike.
The downwind should be done about a mile from the runway, maybe even a little less in a small and slow plane like the 152. So, really you’re just trying to get that optimum distance.
Mike, good question – I was trained to ‘look back’ from my leg (being crosswind in this question) and visualize a line from my the End of the Departing runway to your Aircraft. When this ‘imagined line’ is at a 45degree angle you commence your turn to Downwind. It becomes a natural process with practice. Same on the Downwind leg. You visualize a ‘line’ from your anticipated Touchdown runway and to your Aircraft – when it’s 45degrees you commence your turn to Base Leg. Turning on Final is much the same, however there is some room for difference…like Short Final and Finals etc. Allowing for wind & Traffic etc. This is the ‘standard’ Traffic Circuit.
Correction – Turning Final is not ‘much the same’. it’s NOT a 45degree rule. It’s a more dynamic and judged anticipated turn from Base Leg depending on the conditions. It may commence mid base of later etc. ie Begin earlier or later allowing for wind etc.
I would have explained this the same way, although I generally don’t use the 45* rule of thumb in order to turn downwind. Thanks Paul.
Thanks That has answered my question loverley
and I think All the time Chris is putting into this Labour of Love Deserves an Applause’
Weldone Chris!!.
Best so far Chris, I would like to add to my wish list. Please some instruction on complex GA aircraft like the Baron or Seneca. I love my Seneca but I wonder how RW pilots see around those engines or how they compensate for the difficult view.
Thanks and Real nice production job on this one. I bet you spent some time for this 12 minutes of visuals.
Spread The Word…..FS forever
Tom
Glad you liked this one, Tom. I felt like it was one of our best it. Sometimes it’s hard to grasp the details of the pattern, but once you’ve got it down, it’s easy.
Tom, I’ve never experienced visual problems flying twin engined GA aircraft in the real world. Perhaps FS could give you the impression of impaired visuals – especially with 2D views. If you have a TrackIR system on your FS set up, the Virtual Cockpit is ideal for flying Traffic Circuits. Plus it’s much more realistic. In truth those two engines on your Baron or Seneca are the sweetest things to see !!
Hey Chris,
Good vid… just one quick question on a topic that was touched on in the video but not really explained. What is the exact reason for not putting in flaps on a turn? Or similarily, why is it not recommended to turn during flap incrementation? Any professional thought or advice would be much appreciated. Thanks.
Sincerely,
Ralston
Hey Ralston,
Because the flaps produce more lift, increase angle of attack, and can drop your airspeed is a hurry, and you lose lift in a turn, this could result in a stall.
Does that make sense?
Makes perfect sense. Many thanks.
I agree with Cody and Tom – best episode yet. I also have the same question as Mike regarding Crosswind.
I loved this episode!!! I really liked how you explained stuff and then took us through the whole flight. Great episode!
It’s my favorite episode yet. Glad you liked it!
Did you learn anything new?
Good one! I like that illustration of the pattern. That’s some snazzy videography you’ve got going there.
Thanks
Only a good 14 hours of rendering the 3D.
a couple of questions Chris. you don’t need flaps for take off on small aircraft? when you referred to the 45 degree angle on the downwind leg, does that mean that when you’re approx 45 degrees to the approach end of the runway, that’s when you turn into base? is this the same for all aircraft or just small ones? and, i learnt heaps!
Turned Downwind- After Departure to 300-500 straight ahead.
Turning Base- You are right in your assumption. And yes, this can technically be done on any aircraft.
Let me know if you need more assistance.
A quick note in Australia as a general rule no turns are made under 500 ft , Circuit heights for Helo’sis 500Ft AGL Single Engine GA 1000 Ft AGL and Twins 1500 Ft AGL
Thanks for the tip on Aussie Ops
Thanks, I have been starting to fly in Australia in a C152 out of St Helens (Tasmania). That info certainly helps me!
This Vid reminded me of one I made quite some time ago, very similar.
I won’t post a link out of respect for Chris’s Work here.
If you wish search on you tube
Maurie,
Please feel free to share. As long as links are relevant, I’m fine with it.
OK the link is shown below and it’s a bit dated now being FS2004, as I had not gotten back to producing more due to time constraints, may be Chris and I could team up and start a virtual flight school.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdexbCbtPDo
I don’t think I would have found that unless you gave us the link, so thanks for that! In the future feel free to share relevant things like this.
Throttle On, Maurie!
Hi Maurie,
Nice video but I noticed you didn’t use the rudder to keep the ‘ball’ in the middle of the HSI. Now I didn’t know this until last Sunday at the http://www.swfsg.co.uk meeting when A real Pilot pointed it out to me
I trust you consider it relevant and thanks for allowing me to post the link, seems we are on the same page and I just don’t have the time currently.
Nice work Chris!
Hello Chris.
It’s a fantastic job what you are doing. I have watched with great satisfaction to all the episodes and I can say that although I already had about 2,500 flight hours, I’ve seen every episode like it was my first flight lesson. They are very well prepared, easy to understand, and very professional staff. This all makes me wait for a new one with great curiosity.
I think I can speak for the whole community of Flight Simulator, when I say: Thank you very much
for your magnificent work.
Sincerely,
Patrício
Wow, thanks a ton, Patricio!
Aviator90 seems to be doing well, and I really do know it’s reaching a lot of people. This series will continue to give over time as more and more flight simmers are told about it and find it. I’d rather they are told about it for the mere fact that sometimes it can be hard to find gems like this otherwise.
Anywho, thanks for the kind words.
Throttle On!
Wonderful once again Chris.
Ok. Now you have motivated me to complete my sim station so I can get the yoke and pedals finally installed.
Go for it! The day I got my rudder pedals (I’ve always had a yoke) was the greatest day in my flight sim hobby.
I will probably start Friday night. I will be photographing and including a parts list to post on fszone.org and mycockpit.org.
Let us know about your progress when and where it’s relevant. Throttle On!
Hey Chris!
Another great video! You’ve really taken my flightsim experience to another level! This is exactly what I’ve been looking for! Easy to understand and entertaning! I always find myself saying out loud “Throttle on!” at the same time as you at the end of every episode. I think that when the time come (aka, when I can afford it) to get the real pilotlicense for me, these videos will have been to alot of help.
I have a question tough, are there going to be any other planes in later episodes or is it going to be the 152 all the way?
Keep up the good work!
//Erik Drysén, Sweden
Throttle On, Man! Niiiiice…
Yeah, FS will help out a lot if you learn here before your get your license. It certainly can’t hurt!
Yes, will will most likely use slightly more complex aircraft later on in the series, and maybe LESS complex aircraft. We’ll just have to see.
Throttle On, buddy!
Chris, hands down you are one of the most commited developer to give something back to the community, rock on!
THROTTLE ON
!
Cheers
Alex
Hi Chris! How to download this amazing video? Thanks
Hi Chris,
Really loving the movies! I’ve been flying in FS for quite some years, but it’s still great to watch and sort of recap the basics. After watching them all so far I am starting to think about buying a rudder to make my experience more realistic and fun, specially now you said ‘The day I got my rudder pedals was the greatest day in the greatest day in my flight sim hobby’!
I do wonder if new pilots understood the line ‘We’ve got red and white, that means we’re alright’ but all in all I think you are doing a great job on explaining everything: must be quite hard to keep it understandable for new pilots. When you ‘know it all’ yourself, it’s hard to make sure you aren’t feeding new pilots with information that’s is obvious to you but not to them.
All in all a very informative, helpfull and fun to watch course! And all that for free! Really great!
Jeroen
Yeah, there are sometimes I say things that I just need to say, and we can pickup later. The PAPI/VASI is just one of those things that we won’t be discussing right now. We’ve got to take it all in stride. But, sounds like you get that.
Rudder pedals are just AWESOME. I really love the Saitek ones because you can adjust the tension. This makes the rudder feel more realistic with that resistance.
Nice Landing Chris! oh and excellent video, as usual…
Thanks man!
Hi Chris,
This lesson has been awesome. The scenery is sharp and beautiful, the plane looks very flyable, you are pushing me to try the Carenado Cessna 152 in a snap. I spend most of my flying time with the Boeings 737 old and NG, 747-400 and 767. But your lessons are so well assembled and shown that after finishing this one I jumped into a Cessna 172 and made at least 4 touch and go. I liked the way the “static” explanations have been drawn and animated that slight movement and the 3D stuff is great. Thanks Chris for sharing these lessons with us.
Carlos
GCLP
I’m glad you liked the lesson! The 3D stuff took a long time to get right, and I thought it would be the perfect episode to run the contest.
You know, I am a lot like you too. Most of my flight sim ‘career’ I have been an airliner driver. But recently I’m just enjoying the low and slow stuff with Carenado, ORBX and Tongass Fjords. It’s been nice to fall in love with the basics again.
I’m glad you enjoyed it! Thanks
Throttle ON!
Chris I just have to say that your control of the aircraft in the video is probably selling lots of Carenado 152′s hehe. Seriously, a great series and how nice of you to consider running them and thank you for your time and effort. it’s much appreciated.
Yeah, too bad we aren’t selling the 152 through affiliate stuff, eh?
We don’t mind promoting something awesome.
I’m glad you’re enjoying the series, and we really appreciate you chiming in.
Did you get to enter the contest?
Contest?
Yeah, just read the post above. It talks about it.
Oh! Wow, I totally didn’t see that at the top of the page! Yikes, sorry. I jump to the comments right after viewing the vids! Great comments!
So, what’s the contest duration? I’ve got Microsoft Flight Sim X for Real World training…. this other book would be good too.
Ted
I see what you mean about having to adjust the “bounce”. I love the perspective it gives, very nice. But, too much “bouncing” from time-to-time.
These videos are one of the greatest gifts somebody has ever given to the flightsim community. This is how it is done by the real private pilote’s flying outside. The quality is outstanding. May be you could put your collection of 45 video’s on DVD once it is complete, so all the people without a high bandwith connection can get access to it too!
Sam
Thanks a ton, Sam!
Man, I just got to this video. I had commented in video 23 as it was the latest one made, but I just watched this one. I wanted to say … THANKS. Seriously man, this really helped. I have been reading books and trying to ‘get’ the traffic pattern thing, and kind of struggling with the concept. This video illustrated it so perfectly, and now I’m encouraged to hop in my (virtual) cessna, head to the same airstrip (hooray for Orbx!), and start running traffic pattern touch ‘n go practice!
Thanks Chris. This whole series just blows me away.
There are lots of little hidden treats on the site
I really liked this episode as well. Everything just kinda clicked from a production standpoint and I felt like we got it right
I’m glad it had such a great effect on your knowledge.
Throttle on!
I’m trying to find this airfield. In the video, you call it “Bauerman, WA”, or at least that’s what it sounds like. I searched and couldn’t find the city in FSX’ airport list. What’s the airport code? thanks.
Try the easier spelling. Jack Bauer doesn’t live there. It’s Bowerman, WA.
Throttle On!
Ha, ok thanks. I had found one in Newport, OR (KONP) that looked almost exactly the same, including it’s layout over the water.
I used Newport when doing the Flare section (13?). Flown there in real life. Nice airport, nice town! Do you have PNW then?
Oh absolutely. Best FSX add-on … ever.
It’s pretty dang good, man!
Agreed. It’s something we haven’t had in flight sim really, so it’s natural to want to ‘overdue’ it at first. But, all that can be toned down.
Did you buy the addon?