Traffic Patterns

• Traffic pattern altitude ±100 feet
• Appropriate airspeed ±10 knots

Beyond the numbers, the skill elements also require you to correct for wind drift to maintain the proper ground track, keep orientation with the landing area, and maintain situational awareness and proper spacing from other aircraft in the pattern (CA.III.B.S3, S4, S6). Spacing and speed control are where commercial applicants actually get graded — a pattern flown at the right altitude but jammed onto someone's tail is not a pass.

Unless a specific TPA is published in the Chart Supplement entry (AC 90-66C Appendix A):

• Propeller-driven aircraft — 1,000 feet above the airport surface.
• Large and turbine-powered airplanes — not less than 1,500 feet above airport elevation, or 500 feet above the established pattern altitude.
• Helicopters and gyroplanes landing on the runway may fly a similar but tighter pattern at 500 feet AGL.
• Ultralights — no higher than 500 feet below the standard pattern.

The AC is blunt about why: a common altitude at a given airport is the key factor in minimizing collision risk at fields without an operating tower.

Enter on a course 45 degrees to the downwind leg, joining abeam the midpoint of the landing runway, at pattern altitude (AC 90-66C 11.3).

Two rules that carry the most weight:

• Arrive at TPA before entering — entries into traffic patterns while descending create collision hazards and should be avoided.
• Give yourself enough entry leg to see the whole pattern before you commit.

The 45 also gives you an out: if the pattern will not accept you, you can keep turning away from downwind, fly clear, and come back for another attempt at the 45 while scanning the whole time (AFH ch. 8).

Preferred method — announce your intentions and cross over midfield at least 500 feet above pattern altitude (normally 1,500 feet AGL). If large or turbine aircraft operate there, stay at 2,000 feet AGL so you are clear of their pattern. When well clear — about 2 miles — scan carefully, descend to TPA, then turn to enter at 45 degrees to the downwind at midfield (AFH ch. 8, PHAK ch. 14).

Alternate method — enter on a midfield crosswind at pattern altitude, scan, announce, then turn downwind. Do not use this when the pattern is busy (AC 90-66C Appendix A note).

Either way: give way to aircraft on the preferred 45 and to aircraft already established on downwind.

Yes, by regulation. Approaching to land at an airport without an operating control tower in Class G, each pilot of a powered fixed-wing aircraft must make all turns to the left unless approved light signals or visual markings indicate right turns, in which case turns must be to the right (91.126(b)). Pilots of any other powered aircraft must avoid the flow of that traffic.

You find out from the Chart Supplement or from "RP" next to the airport symbol on the sectional — for example RP 32 means right pattern on Runway 32. No RP noted means left traffic (AC 90-66C 8.2.1.1).

Note the distinction the AC draws: the FAA regulates traffic pattern flow, not traffic pattern entry, and 91.126 continues to apply under 91.127, 91.129, and 91.130 — which matters when a towered airport is operating as a nontowered one.

The FAA discourages them because of the increased midair risk, and specifically does not recommend a straight-in when other aircraft are in the pattern — it conflicts with traffic on base to final (AC 90-66C 8.2.1, 9.11.1).

If you fly one anyway:

• Self-announce your position on the CTAF between 8 and approximately 10 miles from the airport.
• Coordinate the straight-in and landing with other airport traffic.
• Understand you have no particular priority over aircraft in the pattern and must still comply with 91.113(g).

Conversely, if you are in the pattern, you must see and avoid aircraft flying straight-in — including IFR traffic on an approach, which follows the procedure rather than the pattern.

• Aircraft on final approach to land, or while landing, have the right-of-way over other aircraft in flight or operating on the surface (91.113(g)).
• When two or more aircraft are approaching to land, the aircraft at the lower altitude has the right-of-way — but it may not use that rule to cut in front of another that is on final approach, or to overtake it.
• Being overtaken gives you the right-of-way; the overtaking aircraft alters course to the right to pass well clear (91.113(f)).
• Head-on, each pilot alters course to the right (91.113(e)). Converging at the same altitude, the aircraft to the other's right has it (91.113(d)).

None of it relieves you of 91.113(b): see and avoid. If the base-to-final turn would create a conflict, go around (AFH ch. 8).

• ATIS at towered fields — have the code before initial contact. Saying "have numbers" does not indicate receipt of the ATIS (AIM 4-1-8).
• AWOS/ASOS at nontowered fields for wind, altimeter, and ceiling. Set the local altimeter setting — using the wrong one puts you at the wrong pattern altitude relative to everyone else (PHAK ch. 12).
• Chart Supplement for published TPA, right-traffic runways, noise abatement, and special procedures (AC 90-66C 11).
• Visual indicators as the cross-check: the wind sock shows direction and lets you estimate velocity and gust factor; a tetrahedron's small end points in the direction of landing, but it can be manually set, so believe the sock. At towered airports the tetrahedron is referenced only when the tower is closed — tower instructions supersede it (PHAK ch. 14).

Vortices are strongest when the generating aircraft is heavy, clean, and slow (AIM 7-4-3). They sink at a rate of several hundred feet per minute, weakening with time and distance behind the generating aircraft, and they drift with the wind (AIM 7-4-4).

• Landing behind a larger aircraft, same runway — stay at or above its final approach path, note its touchdown point, and land beyond it.
• Parallel runway closer than 2,500 feet — consider drift onto your runway; stay at or above its path.
• Crossing runway — cross above its flight path.
• Landing behind a departing larger aircraft — land well prior to its rotation point.

Accepting "follow the aircraft ahead" or a visual approach clearance means you have accepted responsibility for wake separation (AIM 7-4-6, 7-4-8). Ask for groundspeed and separation updates any time you are unsure.

For departures from the same threshold, a parallel runway separated by less than 2,500 feet with less than 500 feet of threshold stagger, or a crossing runway with intersecting flight paths (AIM 7-4-9):

• 3 minutes behind a super; 2 minutes behind a heavy; 2 minutes for a small behind a B757 — controllers may not reduce or waive these.
• 3 minutes for a small departing from an intersection or opposite direction behind a large aircraft — waivable on specific pilot request.
• The same 3-minute interval behind a B757 — not waivable.
• 4 minutes behind a super and 3 minutes behind a heavy for those same intersection and opposite-direction cases — and note the two qualifiers: this one applies to all aircraft, not just small, and only when conducted on the same runway or parallel runways separated by less than 2,500 feet. Controllers may not reduce or waive this interval.

After a larger aircraft's low approach, missed approach, or touch-and-go, ensure at least 2 minutes have elapsed before your takeoff or landing. You can request additional spacing — ask on ground control, before taxiing onto the runway.

The NTSB's most probable cause is the pilot failing to see and avoid (AFH ch. 8):

• 56 percent occur in the afternoon, 32 percent in the morning, 2 percent at night, dusk, or dawn.
• Most occur in good visibility, between two aircraft going in the same direction.
• Nearly all occur at or near nontowered airports and below 1,000 feet.

Scan in a series of short, regularly spaced eye movements — each no more than 10 degrees and held for at least 1 second (PHAK ch. 14). Bank occasionally to uncover blind spots; a low-wing above a high-wing is the worst-case geometry. Even with the right-of-way, yield if another aircraft seems too close.

1. Enter in level flight, abeam the midpoint of the runway, at pattern altitude.
2. Downwind flown roughly 1/2 to 1 mile out from the landing runway. Complete the before-landing checks and extend the gear here (AFH ch. 8).
3. Hold TPA until at least abeam the approach end, then begin the descent.
4. Turn base at approximately 45 degrees relative bearing from the approach end.
5. Complete the turn to final at least 1/4 mile from the runway (AIM 4-3-3, key to FIG 4-3-3).
6. After takeoff or go-around, continue straight ahead until beyond the departure end.
7. Turn crosswind beyond the departure end and within 300 feet of pattern altitude.
8. Departing the pattern, continue straight out or exit with a 45-degree turn in the direction of pattern turns, after reaching pattern altitude.

Before joining downwind, adjust course or speed to fit the traffic; adjust power on downwind, or sooner, to fit the flow — not too fast, not too slow. Use the speeds the manufacturer recommends, which generally fall between 70 and 90 knots for typical piston single-engine airplanes (AFH ch. 8). AC 90-66C 11.9 puts it as: operate in accordance with the POH/AFM landing procedures.

You may vary the size of the pattern for your airplane's performance (AC 90-66C Appendix A) — a legitimate tool for a fast retractable behind a trainer, and much better than S-turns on downwind.

Task saturation on downwind. The before-landing flow, a radio call, a traffic call, and a descent all land in the same fifteen seconds, and altitude or spacing slips.

Two structural fixes:

• Sequence the tasks against geography — checks complete before abeam, the abeam point triggers power and descent, the 45-degree point triggers base. When each action has a place, a distraction costs you one item, not the whole pattern.
• Protect the base-to-final turn. If you are overtaking someone and tempted into an overly steep turn to final, that is the cue to abandon the approach and go around (AFH ch. 8). The go-around is the cheapest item on the menu.

There are six sign types (PHAK ch. 14):

• Mandatory instruction — red background, white inscription. Entrance to a runway, critical area, or prohibited area.
• Location — black with yellow inscription and a yellow border, no arrows. Identifies the taxiway or runway you are on, a runway boundary, or an ILS critical area.
• Direction — yellow background, black inscription. Designations of intersecting taxiways leading out of an intersection.
• Destination — yellow background, black inscription and arrows. Runways, terminals, cargo, civil aviation areas.
• Information — yellow background, black inscription. Areas not visible from the tower, frequencies, noise abatement.
• Runway distance remaining — black background, white number = thousands of feet of landing runway remaining.

Markings (PHAK ch. 14):

• Runway holding position — four yellow lines, two solid and two dashed. Approaching the runway you meet the solid lines first: stop short, and do not cross until cleared. Exiting, you meet the dashed lines first, and you are clear only when the entire aircraft crosses both pairs. Noncompliance can draw a pilot deviation.
• Displaced threshold — a 10-foot white threshold bar with white arrows along the centerline behind it. That pavement is usable for takeoff either direction and for landing from the opposite direction, but not for landing on it.

Lighting: runway edge lights are classified by intensity — HIRL, MIRL, LIRL. Taxiway edge lights are blue; taxiway centerline lights are green. Where a runway centerline lighting system is installed (some precision approach runways), the colors change on approach:

• White — until the last 3,000 feet
• Alternating white and red — for the next 2,000 feet
• All red — for the final 1,000 feet

There is no runway to inspect from the Chart Supplement, so you inspect it from the air. Circle the intended landing area and examine it thoroughly (FAA-H-8083-23 ch. 6) for:

• Obstructions — pilings, floating debris, submerged weeds or snags visible through clear water.
• Traffic — boats, ships, swimmers, jet-skis, wind-surfers, barges, and other seaplanes, plus the wakes they leave, which become swells in your touchdown zone.
• Buoys marking channels, hidden dangers, no-wake zones, or swimming beaches.
• Room to depart — in confined areas, verify before landing that a safe takeoff is possible under the conditions expected at departure time.

Then plan the taxi route to the dock, and cross populated shorelines no lower than 1,000 feet AGL where feasible.

Most established seaplane bases have a wind sock, but when one is not visible (FAA-H-8083-23 ch. 6):

• Boats at anchor weathervane into the wind — unless a stern anchor holds them.
• A glassy band of calm water lies along the upwind shore.
• Waterfowl land into the wind and head into it while swimming.
• Wind streaks parallel the wind: smooth streaks in light wind, white foam lines at about 10 knots or more. They give direction accurately, but you must work out which end is upwind.

Right-of-way on the water is 91.115, not 91.113:

• Keep clear of all vessels and avoid impeding their navigation.
• Crossing, the craft to the other's right has it.
• Head-on, each alters to the right.
• The craft being overtaken has the right-of-way.

Landing and takeoff should be on the runway most nearly aligned into the wind. If you use a secondary runway — for length, say — avoid the flow of traffic to the into-the-wind runway (AC 90-66C 11.5).

Inside the pattern, the correction is a ground track problem, not a heading problem:

• Crosswind — the wind is roughly perpendicular after a takeoff into the wind, so crab into it to hold a track perpendicular to the runway centerline.
• Base — the airplane's longitudinal axis may not align with the ground track at all (AFH ch. 8).
• Crosswind leg length — runs longer or shorter in unusually hot or cold conditions (AC 90-66C 11.7 note).
• Downwind — do not over-descend on a tailwind.

Windshear is a sudden, drastic change in wind speed and/or direction over a very small area, and low-level shear is the most dangerous because there is no altitude to trade (PHAK ch. 12).

The microburst is the severe case:

• Horizontal diameter: 1–2 miles
• Nominal depth: 1,000 feet
• Lifespan: about 5–15 minutes
• Downdrafts: up to 6,000 fpm

PHAK distinguishes two looks — an intense rain shaft at the surface, but virga at cloud base — and a ring of blowing dust is often the only visible clue at all.

The classic pattern encounter runs performance-increasing headwind, then downdraft, then rapidly increasing tailwind — so an unexplained airspeed gain on final is a warning, not a gift. Convective activity anywhere near the field is reason to delay.

• Departing — monitor and communicate on the CTAF from startup, during taxi, and after departure; broadcast intentions a minimum of 10 minutes prior to taxi (AC 90-66C 9.5, 10.4.2).
• Arriving — approximately 10 miles out, monitor the CTAF and self-announce position, altitude, and intention. All traffic within a 10-mile radius should monitor and communicate (AC 90-66C 10.4.1, 9.11.2).
• In the pattern — announce entering downwind, base, and final, and leaving the runway (PHAK ch. 14, Figure 14-1).

Also note the FAA discourages back-taxi operations at nontowered airports because of surface collision risk with landing traffic (AC 90-66C 10.4.2 note).

• Gliders — a glider, including the tow aircraft during towing, has the right-of-way over powered aircraft. Glider patterns are typically flown inside the powered pattern, with entry points from 600 to 1,000 feet AGL, and may run in the opposite direction in some wind conditions.
• Balloons — right-of-way over any other category of aircraft (91.113(d)(1)), and they do not fly a standard pattern.
• Ultralights — required by part 103 to yield to all aircraft; they fly significantly slower with steep takeoff and approach angles.
• Rotorcraft — expect autorotation practice with very steep approach angles and 1,500 to 2,000 fpm descent rates (AC 90-66C 12.1.5); avoid operating within three rotor diameters of a helicopter in a slow hover taxi or stationary hover (AIM 7-4-7).
• Drones — the remote PIC must yield to manned aircraft, but is not required to maintain radio communication and may be very hard to see.

(AC 90-66C 9.10.1, 12.1–12.4.)

When you report the preceding aircraft in sight, you will be instructed to follow it — but that instruction does not authorize you to comply with any clearance or instruction issued to that aircraft (AIM 4-1-18). You still need your own landing clearance, and you have just accepted responsibility for wake turbulence separation (AIM 7-4-8).

Extended downwinds, "I'll call your base," and 360s for spacing are normal; what is not normal is accepting a sequence you cannot fly. If the spacing is closing faster than you can bleed off, say so early — a request for a wider pattern costs the controller one instruction, and a go-around costs everyone a whole trip around.