Today’s solo practice session will feature a new mission: having a go at the traffic pattern of a tower-controlled airport. Whether the airport is your home base or a training-flight destination, what you experience will lay a valuable foundation for your future flying.
What should you expect? You will be under the direction of ground and tower controllers throughout your session, but don’t confuse that idea with any notion of a dull or repetitive exercise. When working in the traffic pattern of a tower-controlled airport, every circuit may be a little different as local traffic comes and goes. Variations on the theme of a standard traffic pattern are many. You will likely encounter several in short order—or they may be available at your request.
Here is a sampling of some of the operations you could be instructed to perform during your session. What occurs depends largely on how much traffic is inbound and outbound, whether wake-turbulence separations are needed, and the speed of other aircraft.
‘Follow that traffic’
All was quiet when you monitored the automatic terminal information service broadcast and obtained your taxi clearance. But just as you were cleared for takeoff on Runway 32 and instructed to “make left traffic,” an aircraft contacted the tower from a few miles out. It was assigned instructions to “proceed straight in for Runway 32.” So now you’ll have company.
As you level off on the downwind leg, you spot the inbound aircraft’s landing light on a one-mile final. When the tower controller asks if you have the traffic in sight, and you reply in the affirmative, the controller responds, “Follow that traffic, cleared for the option.” You complete your first traffic pattern while keeping a careful eye on the aircraft ahead, which clears the runway with plenty of time to spare.
A short circuit
Suppose the aircraft in the preceding scenario was a bit farther out on final when you spotted it from the downwind leg. In this case the controller may decide to make your aircraft number one for the runway—but with a stipulation: “Make short approach, cleared for the option.” If you accept the clearance, you will be expected to keep your traffic pattern tight. Performing a power-off approach starting from the point opposite the numbers, where you normally begin your descent, is a good way to comply.
Tower-commanded go-around
Now suppose the spacing between the two aircraft is still tight and even a short approach isn’t going to work out. Whether the reason is the controller’s bad call, the other aircraft’s speed, or your inability to keep your approach short enough doesn’t matter because in all cases, the solution is the same: a go-around. You have performed them before, on your own—perhaps when you were too high on final, or when maintaining directional control in a crosswind proved difficult. So now, when the controller calls your number and commands, “Go around,” you know exactly what to do. Comply promptly, and continue flying your assigned traffic pattern unless new instructions are provided.
In a variation on this scenario, if during your approach the tower controller expresses concern about the separation but has not yet instructed you to go around, volunteer to do so if in your judgment it would be the best solution. In all likelihood the controller will approve the maneuver and be grateful for your cooperation and situational awareness.
Elongated pattern
More than a few student pilots might feel uncomfortable accepting the short-approach clearance posed in the previous scenarios. Here’s an alternative: Decline! Now the controller will have to come up with a different idea. One possibility is to instruct you to extend your downwind leg, buying some time for the aircraft on final to land and clear. The controller may also inform you that he or she will “call your base leg.” It may now be a good idea for you to slow down a bit (to avoid flying excessively far downwind). Also, delay flap deployment until you are headed back toward the airport and within safe gliding range. A key point when flying an elongated traffic pattern is to make sure you are maintaining traffic-pattern altitude and not—as sometimes observed by flight instructors—gradually losing altitude as a result of fixation on the traffic situation.
‘Make a 360’
An alternative method sometimes used to buy time until the traffic is no longer a factor is to have an aircraft make a 360-degree turn on the downwind leg. For example, if you are flying a left downwind to Runway 32, you could be asked to perform a right 360-degree turn, then resume flying the downwind leg. Make your turn a shallow-banked maneuver—both in consideration of your low altitude and airspeed, and because the purpose of the maneuver is to serve as a delaying tactic. Be aware of the winds at pattern altitude and plan to rejoin the downwind leg at more or less the same place where you began the 360-degree turn.
Change to right (or left) traffic
You touched down nicely, added power for your next takeoff, and are airborne again when the controller instructs “Make right closed traffic.” It turns out that another aircraft is inbound from the west, and has been instructed to join the left downwind. Putting you over on the east side of the airport for your next pattern maximizes separation. Unless you fly frequently from an airport that makes use of right-hand patterns, this may be an unfamiliar operation, so give yourself plenty of room for base leg and final turns. Remember that if there has been any right crosswind component on your landings, this will become a tailwind component on your right base leg, increasing your groundspeed. Failure to take this factor into account could result in your overshooting the final.
‘When able’
A large aircraft is waiting at the hold-short line as you cross the numbers and touch down. This time, on your touch and go, the controller requests that you turn crosswind “when able,” and clears the waiting aircraft to taxi onto the runway. The instructions you received have a very specific meaning. Instead of your usual procedure of climbing straight ahead until almost reaching pattern altitude before turning, you are now expected “to seek the first opportunity to comply,” as explained in the Aeronautical Information Manual’s Pilot/Controller Glossary. That may mean starting your turn earlier than usual—but not before you deem it safe to do so. Once you have begun your turn, don’t be surprised to hear the controller clear the large aircraft for takeoff, and possibly include additional instructions such as “Fly runway heading,” to ensure safe separation.
A new restriction
Until now, on each of your traffic patterns you have been “cleared for the option,” which is an ATC authorization “for an aircraft to make a touch-and-go, low approach, missed approach, stop and go, or full stop landing at the discretion of the pilot.” But with several aircraft now inbound, your next clearance restricts you to “touch-and-go only,” because there would not be enough time for a stop-and-go or a full-stop landing.
Request a stop-and-go
Touch-and-go practice has its efficiencies, but it is also valuable to make full-stop landings and perform the next takeoff from a standing start now and then. If the runway is long enough and traffic permits, requesting clearance for a “stop and go” provides this opportunity without your having to spend time taxiing off the runway, contacting ground control, and taxiing back to the beginning for takeoff. Ask your flight instructor for acceptable limitations on this method and for its close cousin that is often employed at tower-controlled airports: the intersection takeoff.
Low approach
During your practice session ATC has been issuing the instructions needed to accommodate your training and also make the runway available to other aircraft (most of whose pilots understand and appreciate the importance of what you are doing). Barring any restrictions on your next circuit, another practice tool available to you is a low approach—that is, a final approach that does not conclude with touchdown.
Why would you opt for this? If the runway is sufficiently long and there’s a bit of a crossswind, this method offers a chance for a student pilot who is getting ready for the private pilot checkride to practice keeping the aircraft positioned above the center line (provided your instructor has shown you this method in dual sessions and approves of it for solo practice). It also allows for an intentional go-around.
‘Full stop’
After a thorough workout in the aircraft, most students can sense when the point of diminishing returns is at hand. To end on an upbeat note, you decide to finish with a short-field landing (traffic permitting). Your goal is land on a spot and clear the runway at the first taxiway, or before reaching a handy reference point of your choice. Give the tower controller plenty of advance notice that this will be a full-stop landing. If traffic makes the short-field landing impractical, performing a spot landing that lets you clear the runway promptly at the nearest taxiway is also great practice, and it will win you appreciation from the controllers and fellow pilots—with whom you have had the privilege of being an equal partner using the local airspace.
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