Cessna Course Flying the Circuit

One of the hardest things the training pilot will do is learn to fly the circuit. Many hours are spent in the circuit practicing taking off, climbing ,turning ,flying straight and level, increasing and decreasing speed, descending ,final approach and landing.

What this lecture is about is giving you a few tips and hints and explaining the various aspects for you. Once you have learnt to climb, descend, turn and fly straight and level you will then go into the circuit.

Firstly the circuit is made up of a departure leg which you fly on take off. Most circuits are left hand but due to built up areas or terrain some airfields do have right hand patterns. The pilot on reaching 500 or1000 ft above the airfield depending on local instructions will make a left or right turn of 90 degrees into the crosswind leg. After a short time the pilot will turn 90 degrees again into the downwind leg. This is normally 2 to 3 miles from the runway. The pilot will fly past the approach end of the airfield for 45 seconds from a point level with the end of the approach end of the runway. The downwind leg is flown at 85 knots with a light aircraft at a height of 1000 ft. The pilot then turns 90 degrees into the base leg. It is said a good landing is made from making a good approach. It is therefore important that an accurate heading is flown on the downwind, base and final leg allowing for wind drift.

The pilot will then have to learn to judge by practice when to turn onto final approach. In the base leg the pilot should slow the aircraft and slow to 70 knots and apply part flap. If the aircraft has has a retractable undercarriage then it should be lowered in the downwind leg. On circuit training it is left down. Most light aircraft have a fixed undercarriage.

Do not jump the queue by cutting in front of another pilot to land first. You may have to extend your downwind leg if the circuit is busy.

Know your Circuit Headings, the best time to find them is before take off. To make things easy all you have to remember is each turn to the left and right is a turn of 90 degrees in the circuit . The aircraft should be banked 15 degrees when turning.

If you are unsure of your headings then when you line up on the runway for take off, look at your Direction Indicator the figure at 12 O clock will be your approach heading. On your Direction Indicator then look at the heading in the 9 O clock and Three O clock positions .These will be you Base Leg and Crosswind leg headings. Then look in the 6 O clock position and you will see your Downwind Leg heading.

If for example your runway heading is 270 then if you was doing a left hand circuit then look to the compass 9 o clock position, the crosswind leg is 180 the downwind leg is 090 the 6 O clock position the base leg is north in the three o clock. If it was a right hand circuit then the three O clock would be your crosswind heading. You can use this method no matter which leg you are on to find the next heading you only have to look left or right depending on the circuit direction

1. Take Off and Climb Out at 65 Knots . (Start pulling the stick back at 55 knots on take off.)

2. At 500ft commence a turn to the left or right of 90 degrees (depending which circuit direction it is.)

3. Climb and level off at 1000 ft above the airfield. it is therefore important to have set your altimeter to zero ft before take off. Accelerate to 85 knots, then commence a left turn of 90 degrees and fly the downwind leg .

5. Fly Downwind at 85 knots level at 1000 ft and do your landing check list in the this leg.

Inform the Tower you are Downwind On the Radio after turning into the downwind leg.

After passing the approach end of the runway set your stop watch and turn into base leg 45 seconds after this point (another 90 degrees turn) now start to slow down to 70 knots for the approach and select 10 degrees of flap. Inform the Tower you are Base Leg on the Radio after turning into the Base Leg. Use you outside view and learn to judge when to turn the aircraft onto final approach.Too soon and you will be fighting to get lined up too late and you will also be struggling. The idea is to roll out of the turn directly on the runway centre line.

Once on Final Approach lower the flaps to 20 degrees( or if a small field full flap.)

Approach at 70 knots for the landing, use the lights at the left hand side of the runway. To help you judge height , if you are correct you should have two red and two white lights. If you are low you will have 3 or 4 red lights. If you are too high you will have 3 or 4 white lights.


TOO HIGH	CORRECT	TOO LOW

If you are flying too slow on final push the stick forward and retrim. If you are flying to fast bring the stick back you want 70 knots indicated airspeed.

If you do win the Krypton Factor Game ,remember who taught you this. (Donations appreciated)

Once you fly over the runway and are a few feet above the runway, close the throttle and pitch the aeroplane up slightly. Let the aeroplane drop gently onto the runway keep the nose wheel off initially. Keep coming back on the stick as the airspeed drops off. Ideally you want the aircraft to stall as the wheels touch. This stops the aircraft bouncing into the air again. If you are too fast on the approach the aircraft could bounce or even start to climb away again. It is therefore important that you get the landing speed right. An approach speed of 70 knots reducing to 55 in the flare just above the runway is about right.

If you are doing another circuit bring the flaps back to 10 degrees apply full power rotate again at 60 knots and repeat the process.

Most aircraft accidents happen in the landing phase. Watch your airspeed at all times. The biggest danger is from the aircraft stalling. If you fly to slowly the aircraft will stall lose lift eventually and fall like a stone you must never let your Airspeed go below 55 knots as a safe margin. If you are turning the stall speed will increase depending how much bank you have.

If you stall with a wing down the aircraft will spin into the ground unless you know how to recover it and have the height to do it.

The side of the airfield the circuit is on is known as the live side and the side away from the circuit is known as the dead side. An aircraft joining the circuit from another airfield approaching on the live side of the circuit will fly over the airfield at 2000 ft above circuit height from the live side to the dead side and descend on the dead side to circuit height and then cross the runway at the departure end into the Crosswind leg see diagram below. traffic already on the dead side should join at 1000ft in the crosswind leg. This will apply in VFR normally . If IMC or in a busy traffic zone, radar vectoring may apply or an instrument approach procedures will be required.