I think I have found out that when you call ATC and say:
“Airport, Cessna whatever, 5 miles southeast, inbound to land.”
They say:
“Cessna whatever, enter left downwind runway 9.”
I believe they should be saying:
“Cessna whatever, enter right downwind for runway 9”. Unless ATC is expecting me to fly the left crosswind leg over to the left downwind. I’m not sure. (I DO know ATC is generally screwed up, but it has been improving somewhat).
After so many of these, I believe I found the problem is simply: the word “left” should be switched with “right”. I’m thinking this somehow got messed up early on. I noticed nearly every time I apply this, if the words were switched it would be correct.
Regardless if left or right downwind, ATC will always clear you to land when abeam of the threshold anyway, but, I find it a bit annoying and (I think) easily fixable.
No. I assume the airports/ATC are not observing whether or not the Airport Facilities Directory indicates a left or right traffic pattern. I assume the sim would be telling you to enter right or left based on bearing from the airport. This has been my (limited 60hrs) experience in real life. I flew at KJXN for a time, and they would just clear us to whatever side of the runway was nearest to us inbound.
Yeah, I am aware of all of this. I am just wondering if the sim is aware of it, and to what degree. And like I said, I notice if they change left to right and visa versa, it is correct (for the purposes of flying the nearside entry anyway). Thanks again.
It should be aware, yes. If it’s not, that’s a bug in the nav data for that particular runway. That it’s telling you “left” most of the time is correct.
I don’t think the in-game ATC knows or cares about the difference. The two airports I fly in and out of most often have both left and right traffic patterns, depending on the runway. The game’s ATC always uses the left-hand pattern.
To enter a left downwind for Runway 9, from outside of the airport traffic pattern enter the downwind leg at a 45° angle which would be 225°. Fly 225° until entering the downwind leg of 270°. Turn to a heading of 180° For the base leg then turn 90° when entering the final. This is what ATC (and other pilots in the traffic pattern) expect you to fly.
If you enter a right hand traffic pattern instead, you’d be flying a head-on collision course on the base leg heading right towards anyone on the left hand base.
I did a quick test at KFUL, which has a right pattern for rw 24. Set the wind to 270 deg 5 knots to force the runway selection, hopped in the air, and asked to land – they assigned me a left pattern to 24. ;_;
Oh well! (Don’t know whether that’s a general limitation or if data is hit and miss.)
Well, now you go me thinking, and I am trying to remember if I have ever heard a “enter right” traffic call. Maybe it’s all left-hand patterns. I’ll keep an eye out for it.
And all of this isnt a big deal. Just a suggestion I made for smoother operation. Maybe they’ll get this right in the coming updates.
Last night I took off from Toronto Downtown airport CYTZ runway 8. I highly doubt the traffic pattern is left turns because you would be right over skyscrapers. Yet, I was told to make left downwind for 8. Lol
Probably not high on the priority list for fixing I bet.
According to airnav.com, it shows 8/26 both having left hand traffic patterns. But according to Jeppesen, Rwys 6 and 8 both have right hand traffic patterns. Flip a coin!
