Hi,
I am quite new to flying. I read some training guides but I didn’t get how to estimate when turn while in traffic pattern please? Because very often I am too far from airport when turning to final. And after tens of approaches I did not found any clues how to estimate when to turn to be on perfect glide slope pn final please.
Thank you.
Take a look at this video,
On the 152 / 172 I make my turn to final when the end of the runway is in line with the support strut on the wing.
Try turning on the landing guides under assistance options > navigation aids till you get the feel for it. One guide I read mentioned a 45 degree as a marker. I tend to go a little beyond 45 degrees just to give me some extra leeway, but that is down to my skill level nothing more.
@anon50268670
posted this excellent guide in another thread: Off Airport / Forced Landing Practice - #23 by Nijntje91
Same! 45* is what I was taught in flight school but I like to go a bit further so that my final is a bit longer. Can’t imagine turning base at less than 45*
I have been taught to reduce power to around 1700RPM when the wing passes the end of the runway, then when the airspeed is within the white arc (safe speed for flaps to be deployed), deploy one stage of flap, maintaining circuit height and stay on the downwind leg until you are at 45 degrees from the runway, then apply second stage of flaps and begin a descending turn for base.
I just want to add, that, AFAIK, in the US, basically every airport uses standard traffic patterns.
Be aware, in EU, most small GA airfields have published Patters that are anything but standard.
You can either find the charts online, mostly, on the website of the airfields, or you can see them if using this tool: VFR Map for Little Navmap
There you can see the VFR traffic patterns for most of Europe if you zoom in on the airport on the moving map.
For example, here are a few published patters on the airfields around me that ive flown to IRL:
Just to show you that not every pattern is a standard pattern.
If you want a challenge, try what the student Navy pilots do at local Navy training airfields here in and around Corpus Christi TX. Rather than a boxy standard pattern, they begin at pattern altitude (they use 500 AAL) abeam the landing zone (the key point) by lowering gear and executing a 180 deg turn where one hopes to roll out on runway heading lined up for landing. This is difficult enough with no wind, but we always have wind in the Coastal Bend and one has to vary the bank angle in the turn to compensate for that. It takes time to figure this one out.
And sometimes no circuit at all^^