Huge, Massive, Enormous Circuits

Chuck Ellsworth · Thu May 21, 2015 11:02 pm

Barney one day I watched one of my flight instructors do a walk around check of one of my airplanes that took most of the morning because he went into very deep examination of every possible item imaginable on the airplane.

They got in it and did a pre start and pre taxi check that took almost the rest of the day and finally released the brakes and started to taxi away but the airplane was wobbling and making weird sounds.

The right tire had been flat during this whole learning experience....

.......but no problem he was a licensed flight instructor and thus could teach flying..go figure.

Colonel · Fri May 22, 2015 10:38 am

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jump154 · Wed May 27, 2015 3:20 pm

Learning to fly an L2 at CNC4 last year, learned a lot by flying on Thu nights when the tiger boys have their BBQ. Not only were they flying far tighter circuits than I was (which in turn were much tighter than when I first learned there) - but were also using the cross runway. Look down on downwind and there were biplanes everywhere, all going other directions. All worked out, everyone knew what everyone else was doing.

mcrit · Mon Jun 01, 2015 5:43 pm

Circuits are like women. Tighter is better.

Chuck Ellsworth · Mon Jun 01, 2015 9:01 pm

[quote]Circuits are like women. Tighter is better.[/quote]

Only if what you are doing the circuits with is small. :)

mcrit · Tue Jun 02, 2015 2:34 am

Guys who came after me in the circuit never complained that it was to wide. The guys who are with my ex girlfriends.....well that's a different story. 8)

Ever notice how your love life mimics your log book? We've all got a some dua, a hell of a lot more solo and everybody is trying to get some multi? ;)

Gravedigger · Mon Jun 08, 2015 7:07 pm

duCapo · Thu Jun 18, 2015 4:57 pm

I always thought I flew pretty tight circuits, until the first one in a Pitts. That is where you fly a tight circuit.

Colonel · Thu Jun 18, 2015 5:32 pm

Whether the prop is constant-speed or
fixed pitch makes a huge difference to
the size of the power-off circuit.

Constant-speed prop (esp 3-blade)
produces enormous drag at idle RPM.

This is very noticeable in the DR-109.

Slick Goodlin · Thu Jun 18, 2015 6:19 pm

So we've established that being within gliding distance of the runway on downwind is a good idea (although I don't know if that should be touted as the #1 reason to fly a tight circuit) but consider this: For those who continue downwind until about 45* past the threshold to square off the circuit (versus the power off 180, which does have its place), now you're power dependent (myself included most of the time) and if the engine quits you likely won't make the runway. Are we okay with this because you'll probably be able to at least make it to some flat-ish piece of airport property or should squared-off circuits be discouraged? I'm genuinely curious to hear what you guys have to say as this place has a very high percentage of what I consider to be real aviators.

I'm not trolling so I trust you won't hate or flame ;)