New answers tagged traffic-pattern
3
Aviate, navigate, communicate.
Tell yourself to keep calm.
Look around you: If your current heading is not taking you over the runway or towards visible traffic, keep your heading and altitude.
Look around you: is there any feature outside that you recognize? Chimney, church, lake, forrest? If yes, and the course there does not cross the runway or other ...
0
Your DI will tell you your heading and you can work out which leg you are on from that. If the runway in use is 09 and you're flying 270 then you're downwind. If the pattern is left hand and you are flying 180 you're on base, if it is 360 you're crosswind.
Obviously, heading is not track. It gets harder if your runway is 23 and there's a 20kt wind from ...
9
It is the advice of the FAA that you should be looking out the window quite a bit when VFR in the pattern. According to this AC related to traffic patterns:
Collision Avoidance. The pilot in command’s (PIC) primary
responsibility is to see and avoid other aircraft and to help them see
and avoid his or her aircraft. Keep lights and strobes on. The use ...
8
If you are confused somehow about your situation over an airport, and there are other aircraft around, head for empty sky away from the airport beyond the pattern/circuit and get reoriented. By empty sky, I mean if you think somebody might be nearby and you aren't sure where they are and don't have them in sight, identify a patch of sky where they're not, ...
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