Checkride

Evaluating Traffic Pattern Savvy

Few pilot skills fall prey to so widely differing philosophies as traffic patterns. At towered airports, air traffic control separates runway traffic, so you and your examiner should have no problem agreeing about proper procedure when control towers rule. However, examiners have diverse back-grounds, so we often have different perspectives about how to handle traffic patterns at nontowered airports.

Observe airplanes at nontowered fields, and you will see astounding differences in the way they fly traffic patterns. Even at towered airports, pilots may baffle observers with the way they approach the pattern. Recently I watched from the runup pad as two sizable twin-engine airplanes departed my home field, Richard Lloyd Jones Jr. Airport in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Both pilots began left turns to join their course about 850 feet above mean sea level (msl), or 200 feet above the surface. My checkride applicant interrupted his pretakeoff check to watch the spectacle, turned to me and said, "You wouldn't have let me get away with that when we did my private pilot checkride, would you?" It was more a statement than a question. He was right. The Airport/Facility Directory (A/FD) entry for the airport advises pilots of the noise abatement procedure: "No turns on departure prior to 1,500 feet msl."

In creating the A/FD, the FAA has labored to give pilots a logical and predictable approach to operating where no control tower exists. Standardization pays strong safety benefits in traffic patterns. Today's pilot applicant needs more knowledge than the applicant of the 1950s or 1960s, and much of that information resides between the A/FD's pale green covers.

Among the things the A/FD can tell you that you will need to know for your checkride is whether or not an airport conducts land-and-hold-short opera- tions (LAHSO). This is where one airplane lands and holds short of an intersecting runway, taxiway, or other predetermined point on the runway to allow simultaneous landings or departures from intersecting runways. Questions about LAHSO have recently been added to the knowledge test, and the Aeronautical Information Manual (AIM) devotes about three pages to pilot LAHSO responsibilities. Private pilot applicants need not be expert in LAHSO, but they must not be ignorant.

In preparing for your private pilot certificate, you will cover all types of airport procedures, including traffic patterns. And your preparation should strongly emphasize runway incursion and collision avoidance. The AIM's fourth chapter discloses wondrous information in a section titled "Airport Operations." On your checkride, you will be expected to either answer direct questions or expound from scenarios the recommended traffic pattern entry and altitude considerations at nontowered airports. There is more to this than simply knowing that many traffic patterns are at 1,000 feet above the airport's elevation. Local considerations can establish the traffic pattern at altitudes as low as 600 feet to as high as 1,500 feet above the airport. Certain turbojet operations mandate traffic pattern altitudes of up to 2,500 feet above ground level. Preflight planning is critical; thus traffic pattern altitudes appear in the A/FD.

Some traffic patterns are even slightly lower than the 600 feet that the FAA's training publications often discuss. At Fort Worth Meacham International Airport, the A/FD says, "Tfc pattern altitude for Rwy 16R-34L 1,300 (590), all other rwys 1,500 (790)." Your examiner will ask you to plan a cross-country flight, and he or she may include an airport with just such a surprise. In addition, you should have a copy of the A/FD on hand for the oral portion of your checkride.

The private pilot checkride should also include a diversion to an unplanned airport. Current sectional charts have symbols to show which nontowered airports or runways use right-traffic patterns. Know how to read this information from the sectional chart before you take your checkride. While this is a good start, remember that sectional charts say nothing about traffic pattern altitudes. Prepare accordingly.

Flying traffic patterns properly requires strong personal responsibility on the part of the pilot, and responsibility can be a tough concept to sell. In flight, you must comply with traffic pattern procedures - even when you think you are the only person around. Following procedures often means more than simply flying at traffic pattern altitude around a rectangular course. You must comply with the airport's procedure for noise abatement if it has one.

Examiners conduct most private pilot practical tests locally, so landings at airports other than the departure field are uncommon. Still, a sad percentage of applicants have never perused the Airport/Facility Directory entry for their home field. They often know nothing about noise-abatement procedures listed in the A/FD for their home airport. Flight instructors sometimes neglect to teach local noise-abatement procedures as they concentrate on more immediate aspects of their students' learning.

In the traffic pattern, maintaining proper spacing from other aircraft should be second nature, but examiners know that confusion can erupt in an instant. Even at towered airports, other airplanes can interfere with your careful adherence to procedure. Faster or slower airplanes as well as those entering the pattern from different directions can force you to make adjustments to maintain spacing. Not only must you be able to see where these other airplanes are, but you also must be able to anticipate where they will be to be sure your spacing is proper. What is proper? Most examiners offer some version of this explanation: "When the situation begins to scare me, it's improper."

Examiners must be judicious in applying the practical test standards (PTS) requirement that you establish your traffic pattern at an appropriate distance from the runway, considering the possibility of an engine failure. My home airport is among the nation's busiest; some days even trainers fly traffic patterns appropriate to the B-52. Safety and the PTS agree that downwind legs should allow for making a landing on the runway if the engine fails. Mixing airplanes of varied performance envelopes muddies the evaluation waters, and not all airplanes can mimic a Cub's tight circuit. Some situations might applaud a wider pattern. If you fly an airplane appreciably faster than those sharing your traffic pattern, your examiner will most likely note the manufacturer's or operator's recommended airspeed. The PTS requires you to maintain that recommended speed plus or minus 10 kt.

Equally important in the traffic pattern is that you understand the proper use of flaps. Circumstances may force you to adjust when and how you apply flaps. Every examiner has seen the applicant who blindly follows the checklist, applying 10 degrees of flaps on even a wide downwind, then 20 degrees on base, even though the runway is a mile away. The flaps hit 30 degrees as we roll level on final, despite the distance to the threshold or the strength of the wind now directed at the nose.

Each time you fly a traffic pattern, the wind nudges your airplane one way or another. You must correct for that drift to maintain a rectangular ground track. This is why your instructor sadistically demanded that you practice those rectangular courses in your practice area. There you could concentrate on your orientation and ground track without other traffic until the pattern became part of you.

For your checkride, you don't need extensive knowledge of all traffic patterns at all airports; familiarity with the basic rectangular pattern makes it easy for you to make proper approaches and departures at most airports. Your examiner will simply want to see that your ground track is rectangular and oriented to the runway in use and you are vigilant in looking for and avoiding other traffic.

When you face an airport with multiple active runways, your landing assignment is crucial. Your examiner cannot help you maintain orientation to the proper runway, because private pilot privileges are single-pilot privileges. Examiners have seen furballs develop in traffic patterns, and we know statistically that these will involve our former applicants, now carrying innocent passengers in a wide variety of airplanes. Therefore we examiners cling to this statement from the Airplane Flying Handbook: "Regardless of the type of airport, the pilot must know and abide by the rules and general operating procedures applicable to the airport being used." The A/FD contains a growing complement of airport diagrams to make this easier to do. Pilots also can view FAA airport diagrams on AOPA Online (www.aopa.org/asf/taxi ).

Multiple-runway airports attract clients ranging from light trainers to transport category airplanes. Expect your examiner to ask how you would follow a faster, heavier airplane to land or depart on the same runway. This task addresses your knowledge of wake turbulence avoidance. Every pilot should know that the greatest vortex strength occurs when the generating aircraft is heavy, clean, and slow. The Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge (AC61-23C) devotes considerable space to explaining wake turbulence and how to avoid it. Even taxiing too close behind a jet or turboprop in a light airplane courts danger.

Merging into the flow of a traffic pattern requires you to display knowledge and judgment so that you can avoid unexpected maneuvers in the pattern. The ability to consistently do this well marks a milestone in your development as a pilot. Your decision to adhere to proper procedures marks a milestone in your professionalism.