I’m descending and ATC tells me to enter base leg left but I’m on the other side of the airport. What I do is cross at midpoint and enter downwind instead of base. Is this an atc glitch or pilot glitch?
I have a very difficult time visualizing the vectors needed to fly the pattern. So once I have runway assignment I will pause the game and draw a crude compass with the runway overlaid, then I begin drawing the pattern and notating the vectors I will need to fly. Determining a 90 degree turn on the compass is easy enough while in the pattern, but leading up to it I’m juggling numbers around chaotically. Do pilots just do all of this in their head? How do I get better at this?
So now I have my pattern vectors laid out in front of me but how do I get to the entry point? I’m looking at my cheat sheet and then trying to transpose those details visually onto the airport in front of me and it usually goes something like … “Well I think I have to fly over to the right a bit to catch this vector… oh wait a minute, that’s the wrong runway anyway”. I feel like I’m learning by trial and error, stumbling my way to the answers because I’m missing missing instruction or procedures that would help me visualize faster and be more efficient.
My trick for this is to set my heading bug to the runway vector. Then it’s easy to see the 90/180/270 vectors from that because the heading bug moves around the HSI. When it is to the right or left then you’re at a 90 or 270 vector and of course when it’s completely down you are at a 180 vector.
Get a free EFB with a moving map display like Little Nav Map. Visually it does a fabulous job of tracking both your historical flight path as well as rendering where you are in Real Time from a top down view. It’s even overlaying all that on a map in Aeronautical format, just like a Sectional. No fps penalty, you can leave it open all the time in a second monitor if you wanted.
#1 — There is an IOS app called “VT Pattern” which performs all the heading calculations necessary to enter and fly a traffic pattern. The runway number, current aircraft heading, and left or right traffic pattern are entered and the headings are displayed for all of the pattern legs and a 45° downwind entry heading. The app has a rotating view of the pattern to display either the pilot’s view or a chart view. It also has a wind component display (but not a wind correction calculator). It doesn’t show WHERE to enter the traffic pattern.
#2 — MSFS has a Landing Path assistant to draw the correct pattern visually in the sky starting with the downwind entry point. It also displays Too Fast or Too Slow to help you get to the correct stabilized airspeed for landing. This assistant can be turned on or off during the flight and works for all airports and runways. Caution: It uses AI to create a “normal” landing path. This means that if there are hills or mountains in and higher than the landing path, the landing path is shown going through the mountain instead of over it.
I use both of these tools whenever I fly to an unfamiliar airport.
So I’m still wondering how to approach the airport when the tower instructs me to enter the pattern on the other side of the airport.
For example…
I’m instructed to enter base left for runway 9 and I am South East of the airport…
Do I cross the runway at center point at a 90 degree angle? But then I’m set up to enter on downwind but tower said base?
Or I could fly a large arc around the east side of the airport but then I would be in the path of departing airplanes (don’t feel like I should be here), and I would still end up entering downwind.
