Untidy circuits?

[2tonne]

I like to think that I fly reasonably tidy circuits. But, a while back I used my GPS watch to track my circuits and they look a bit looser than I would like!

 

See the attached pics. One is the GPS track and the other is the altitude.

 

I know that the altitude tracking on GPS watches is not real crash hot, but it does seem to show that I am wandering up and down a bit. Must practice more.

 

 

 

 

[turboplanner]

They are pretty good circuits 2t!

 

 

[Geoff13]

You seem to have nailed that upwind leg pretty well. It like you were following a line on the ground. LOL

 

 

[2tonne]

Thanks TP, I thought the turns should have been closer to 90 degrees, but perhaps I was not accounting for the drift properly, maybe overcompensating. Sometimes at Redcliffe though you get a wind in the opposite direction to that at ground level while you are at circuit height.

 

Geoff, yes at least the leg that counts most was a straight one!

 

 

[Pearo]

I reckon thats a pretty tidy set of circuits, CPL standard.

 

I love when the windsock shows and easterly breeze, but its actually westerly. The windsock at YRED lies. I departed on 07 on Wednesday morn, windsock showing an easterly, but rolling down the runway you figure out pretty quick its a tail wind.

 

 

[biggles]

I reckon thats a pretty tidy set of circuits, CPL standard.I love when the windsock shows and easterly breeze, but its actually westerly. The windsock at YRED lies. I departed on 07 on Wednesday morn, windsock showing an easterly, but rolling down the runway you figure out pretty quick its a tail wind.

Not good enough .... Get the ARO to fix it ! ....... Bob

 

 

[2tonne]

The ARO? What is that?

 

 

[biggles]

The ARO? What is that?

' Airfield Reporting Officer ' ie. the person responsible for ensuring the airfield including navigational aids is operating as required ..... Bob

 

 

[2tonne]

Aha, thanks for that Bob. I like learning something new.

 

 

[Jabiru7252]

Here's a sample of my circuits from about 5 years ago.....

 

 

 

[Phil Perry]

You seem to have nailed that upwind leg pretty well. It like you were following a line on the ground. LOL

What ? ? you mean you guys DON'T have ground lines to follow at your airfields ? ? ? ? Respec !

 

Seriously, at some airfields up here, particularly the smaller / country strips, it would help !. . . "Don't fly downwind for zz past that clump of trees for chrissake, or they'll be on the phone, Don't extend over that lake, . . .you'll frighten the pigeons / Swans / newts / whatever. . . and keep well inside that boundary road or you'll frighten the cars. . . " . etc.

 

I guess you may well have a few places like that also. Some of the caveats in the Lockyear's UK small airfields guide; have voluminous instructions which take longer to read than it does to fly there. . . .this is OK for the residents, but concentrates the grey matter for first time visitors.

 

One airfield called Arclid, not far North of my site, has a rule whereby each departing aircraft must adopt a specific departure "Radial" and there were 5 of these, . . ie, each departure must rotate to the next radial to spread the noise evenly around the neighbours . . .this requires much diligence, and carefully noting which way the preceding arcraft went.

 

 

[pylon500]

Your ground tracks actually look pretty consistant, especially with turn points over water.

 

One would normally assume you were doing left hand circuits, although the squeezing effect at the top right hand corner would suggest a gliding turn onto base?

 

The height profile is interesting...

 

You can glide better than your climb rate, which indicates a pretty good climb, are you in a Foxbat?

 

(Just looked at your profile, I guess this was in the CTMC?)

 

The little climb at the end of each downwind just before the decent would suggest pulling on flap while still a bit fast?

 

It is also good to see real glide approaches, getting your circuits down to the 4~5 minute mark.

 

Keep at it...

 

 

[kgwilson]

I did the same check about 20 years ago with an old Garmin GPS II which just had a breadcrumb trail & it looked surprisingly similar to both the examples shown here. So I'd say they are as good as most get. Every one will be a bit different as the wind rarely stays absolutely constant & there are heat bubbles moving you around a bit. The GPS will pick all this up but with the instument damping or lag your VSI & ASI won't.

 

 

[2tonne]

Your ground tracks actually look pretty consistant, especially with turn points over water.One would normally assume you were doing left hand circuits, although the squeezing effect at the top right hand corner would suggest a gliding turn onto base?

The height profile is interesting...

 

You can glide better than your climb rate, which indicates a pretty good climb, are you in a Foxbat?

 

(Just looked at your profile, I guess this was in the CTMC?)

 

The little climb at the end of each downwind just before the decent would suggest pulling on flap while still a bit fast?

 

It is also good to see real glide approaches, getting your circuits down to the 4~5 minute mark.

 

Keep at it...

Pylon, you guessed it, they were right hand circuits on 25. The aircraft was a Tecnam Eaglet which does have a pretty good climb rate. I think the slight climb just before the base turn is pulling the stick back to slow the aircraft to flap extension speed. A lot of the approaches in the Tecnam are glide approaches, because gliding is something it does well.

 

 

[2tonne]

Here's a sample of my circuits from about 5 years ago.....

Your track looks pretty similar, is that a right hand circuit as well?

 

 

[Jabiru7252]

Your track looks pretty similar, is that a right hand circuit as well?

Yep, RH circuits. The tighter circuit is the ideal circuit, the rest were a bit wide. This is because I was just starting out in the Jabs after previously flying the Tabago TB10 and Piper PA28 .

 

 

[Bruce Tuncks]

I reckon they are good and consistent circuits, better than mine. And if you have an engine failure on the circuit you won't go down among the houses. And you won't surprise a glider by coming up behind him on finals.

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

I wouldnt be complaining 2Tonne I think that is super consistant ....there are a lot more flying here at caboolture that wouldnt come close to that...and we have good reference points here not ocean a fair bit of the time

 

Mark