Low level Circuits and Solo Circuits

[Darkwalker]

Hi All,

 

Got a go pro for my bday and well, the footage is not pretty but i do walk away from all my landings :)

 

First solo circuit i missed judge how much lighter i was and landed well down the runway the the next few i got it sorted out.

 

Try not to fall asleep. Solo stuff at 39:00 min mark

 

 

Mathew

 

 

[flyerme]

Hi All,Got a go pro for my bday and well, the footage is not pretty but i do walk away from all my landings :)

 

First solo circuit i missed judge how much lighter i was and landed well down the runway the the next few i got it sorted out.

 

Try not to fall asleep. Solo stuff at 39:00 min mark

 

Well done Mathew..... was that with Ed? Because He is awesome.

 

 

[Darkwalker]

Well done Mathew..... was that with Ed? Because He is awesome.

Yep sure is with Ed H.

 

 

[SSCBD]

Hi All,Got a go pro for my bday and well, the footage is not pretty but i do walk away from all my landings :)

 

First solo circuit i missed judge how much lighter i was and landed well down the runway the the next few i got it sorted out.

 

Try not to fall asleep. Solo stuff at 39:00 min mark

 

Hi Matthew,

Great flying. For you information low level circuits back in the day meant, some grass on the wing tip and climbing over the wire fence to make the strip.

 

Love the 747 approaches you are doing, could have lunch and a nap. Not having a shot - smile.

 

 

[Darkwalker]

Hi Matthew,Great flying. For you information low level circuits back in the day meant, some grass on the wing tip and climbing over the wire fence to make the strip.

 

Love the 747 approaches you are doing, could have lunch and a nap. Not having a shot - smile.

Well considering in the circuit i should be at 1200ft, 700ft is kinda low but it meant instead of losing height when turning base i held it which required more power to keep the profile till final.

 

Yes they do look like long and flat approaches. Trust me im wired till those wheels are down no napping :P

 

 

[M61A1]

Well considering in the circuit i should be at 1200ft, 700ft is kinda low but it meant instead of losing height when turning base i held it which required more power to keep the profile till final.Yes they do look like long and flat approaches. Trust me im wired till those wheels are down no napping :P

If you are half as high, surely you would be only half as far out?

 

 

[facthunter]

That's the way you keep your approach profile. Nev

 

 

[Darkwalker]

If you are half as high, surely you would be only half as far out?

I understand what your saying but look at it this way. If it was at normal circuit height the drop from around 1200 to 700-600 is done on base. But i am already at final height so i keep the profile to the final turn so instead.

If i lost a engine then yes i would turn base early to make sure i can make it. Until then i understand my training to be keep the pattern / profile the same at all time unless is a emergency.

 

I could be wrong but that's how i understand it for now.

 

 

[Yenn]

If you are not within glide distance and you have an emergency, you are not going to make it. Low means closer in before the emergency, not wishing you had been closer in after the start of the emergency.

 

 

[ben87r]

Flying low level or a circling approach I'll obviously fly closer but there is a limit to how close as you still have a 180 degree turn from downwind to final and I'm not wanting to use any "extreme" AOB. Aircraft speed becomes a factor as well depending on the aircraft.

 

 

[Darkwalker]

If you are not within glide distance and you have an emergency, you are not going to make it. Low means closer in before the emergency, not wishing you had been closer in after the start of the emergency.

I have put the question to my instructor. What you say makes sense. I am still awaiting his thoughts on the matter.

 

 

[poteroo]

If you are not within glide distance and you have an emergency, you are not going to make it. Low means closer in before the emergency, not wishing you had been closer in after the start of the emergency.

'Low level' means 500' agl or below. There really isn't any other level you should fly at any CTAF except 500' agl, or 1000' agl - unless you are a 150+kt type, in which case it's 1500' agl. There is an increased element of separation risk when aircraft fly between these levels. If you are doing circuits, and calling low level downwind runway 00 touch & go - it would be expected that you were accurately flying at 500' agl - not anywhere else that you chose at random.

 

The runway should 'intersect' with either the strut, (midway out), in high wing, or somewhere along the aileron,(low wing), at the same point regardless of your height above ground level. ie, same if you are at 200' 500' 750' or 1000' agl. The only difference is that you are further away from the runway with increasing height above ground.

 

The issue of whether you fly rectangular circuits, or 'racetrack' type circuits really depends on your height agl. If you are flying 'genuine' low level, (<500' agl), then racetrack is necessary to fit the approach into such a limited distance from top of descent to threshold.

 

happy days,

 

 

[facthunter]

ALL your heights in the circuit reference AGL. I'm guessing your drome is 200'. The heights are 500, 1,000 and 1500 depending on speed on downwind, or perhaps weather. You only fly full circuits when training. Otherwise it's part circuit and a standard circuit is what you relate to. Adjust to suit circumstances. Nev

 

 

[Darkwalker]

Hi All,

 

I have since had a quick conversation with my instructor about what is a low level and why he made me fly them the way we did.

 

1. Low level cloud base

 

2. At any stage of the circuit there was always options to land if forced to do so.

 

3. At my stage of flight training to get me to fly a tighter pattern would have possibly overload me and put me behind the plane and lead to critical mistake on my behalf. eg stepper turns at slow speeds leading to stalls etc

 

So they are just a few things. While i do love the conversation and getting peoples views. I think it's run it's course.

 

Till the next flight video is up safe skies.

 

Cookie

 

 

[ian00798]

Low level' means 500' agl or below. There really isn't any other level you should fly at any CTAF except 500' agl, or 1000' agl - unless you are a 150+kt type, in which case it's 1500' agl

As part of instrument rating training you will learn how to do circuits as low as 300ft AGL to practice for a circling approach (breaking out at minima off an approach then circling around to the correct runway). In accordance with AIP ENR1.5 by day this can be down to as low as 300ft AGL.

 

If done correctly for a low level circuit you will fly the same ground track as you would for a normal circuit, ie the runway to strut aspect will change as you go lower down. If you flew the same strut spacing that you would on a normal circuit it would keep you much closer to the runway, and leave with with an excessively tight base turn, massively increasing your chance of a stall/spin accident. Remember in nearly any circuit there are going to be times you won't be able to glide back to a runway, as long as there are other places to land it's not a big deal.

 

 

[Nightmare]

Hey, well done Cookie, They always put those magnets on the left side of the runway, don't they? Don't worry too much, I think everyone is guilty of not using the rudder enough in the early days.

 

I must have been one of the only ones spotting the low overcast cloud, it didn't give you much chance to fly at anything but that altitude. That plane is too fast to do a real tight pattern, unless you do slow flight with some flap, at that altitude, and your stage in your training, not a safe option, IMHO.

 

My only critical observation, and I may have missed it, was that you appeared to be backtracking to exit the runway within the boundary of the runway markers, without stating your intentions over the radio.... as I said, maybe I missed it. Really quite important considering there was a bit of traffic in the circuit, and that Microlight in particular on final...

 

Great vid, I enjoyed it.... keep 'em comin!

 

 

[Darkwalker]

Hey, well done Cookie, They always put those magnets on the left side of the runway, don't they? Don't worry too much, I think everyone is guilty of not using the rudder enough in the early days.I must have been one of the only ones spotting the low overcast cloud, it didn't give you much chance to fly at anything but that altitude. That plane is too fast to do a real tight pattern, unless you do slow flight with some flap, at that altitude, and your stage in your training, not a safe option, IMHO.

 

My only critical observation, and I may have missed it, was that you appeared to be backtracking to exit the runway within the boundary of the runway markers, without stating your intentions over the radio.... as I said, maybe I missed it. Really quite important considering there was a bit of traffic in the circuit, and that Microlight in particular on final...

 

Great vid, I enjoyed it.... keep 'em comin!

Cheers. Yes your spot on on the last taxi i was technically on the runway still and no call it was a bad call.

 

 

[Nightmare]

Cheers. Yes your spot on on the last taxi i was technically on the runway still and no call it was a bad call.

and still that microlight still appeared to continue to land when you were not clear of the runway... did he land?

[Soleair]

Hey Mathew

 

All looks fun to me.

 

The quality of your GoPro recording is excellent. I assume you have a GoPro 4? How do you manage to get 70 mins recording in one video? My GoPro3 will only ever record 2 at most clips of 11m 39s each, then shuts down. This is VERY frustrating. I'd appreciate knowing your card size, settings, etc. Please PM me if you think this is too much of a thread drift.

 

Cheers

 

Bruce

 

 

[Darkwalker]

Hey MathewAll looks fun to me.

 

The quality of your GoPro recording is excellent. I assume you have a GoPro 4? How do you manage to get 70 mins recording in one video? My GoPro3 will only ever record 2 at most clips of 11m 39s each, then shuts down. This is VERY frustrating. I'd appreciate knowing your card size, settings, etc. Please PM me if you think this is too much of a thread drift.

 

Cheers

 

Bruce

Hi Bruce,

 

Sorry for the delay in getting back.

 

Yes i have a Gopro4 Silver.

 

I'm lucky in that i get 1hr 45mins recording before i have to swap batteries

 

So for a lesson that's just enough.

 

My gopro breaks the film down in to 4.3gig files so the session is usually made up 4 or 5 files which i reassemble using filmora

 

For the card I'm using a 64gig kingston SDHC class 3 i think (u need a good card to keep up with the gopro or u get stuttering and pausing in the recording)

 

For settings im just using 1080p @ 60frames on a medium lens setting.

 

Every other setting is stock.

 

Im still learning how to get the best pic from the gopro.

 

For sound capturing im using a cable (Pilot PA80) that piggy backs into the comms and passes it directly to the gopro.

 

Only issue with sound is the planes comms is not shielded some were so i have edit the sound part to cut out the noise of the engine making a loud buzzing sound on the recording.

 

Apart from that not emuch to say. I use filmora to edit and upload directly to youtube for me.

 

Im still very new so my vids arnt polished like Romeo Juliet Whiskey videos.

 

 

 

Hope this helps a little

 

 

 

Cookie

 

 

[Soleair]

Great, thanks for that Cookie. I'll try all that you suggest & see if I get better results.

 

I hope you continue to enjoy your flying - looks really good so far. I was almost disappointed after I got my licence - I missed the training experience! But that's probably not normal. . .

 

Cheers

 

Bruce

 

 

[DC16]

Hey MathewAll looks fun to me.

 

The quality of your GoPro recording is excellent. I assume you have a GoPro 4? How do you manage to get 70 mins recording in one video? My GoPro3 will only ever record 2 at most clips of 11m 39s each, then shuts down. This is VERY frustrating. I'd appreciate knowing your card size, settings, etc. Please PM me if you think this is too much of a thread drift.

 

Cheers

 

Bruce

Hey MathewAll looks fun to me.

 

The quality of your GoPro recording is excellent. I assume you have a GoPro 4? How do you manage to get 70 mins recording in one video? My GoPro3 will only ever record 2 at most clips of 11m 39s each, then shuts down. This is VERY frustrating. I'd appreciate knowing your card size, settings, etc. Please PM me if you think this is too much of a thread drift.

 

Cheers

 

Bruce

Bruce, google the problem on gopro forum, I found the 64gb card gave me the same problem, and it was fixed with the 32gb card ...