Hard enough to find it in the EAA forum pages. :-)
Good Yule, y'all...
Ron Wanttaja
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no. not the only one. thousands do it that way. because that's the appropriate circuit entry FOR CANADA.
http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/civilaviatio...letter-754.htm
Attachment 3596Attachment 3595
i believe entering the traffic pattern in the USA almost head-on to traffic which is following the FAA-published procedure is legal, but stucking fupid. but hey. don't let that bother anybody. i believe in santa claus, too. MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Yep, that is the conflict scenario we see in a busy pattern when a knucklehead comes wandering over midfield into a solid line of traffic joining the downwind from the preferred 45* entry. And it is usually an aircraft on the preferred entry that has to give way because the crossing pilot is oblivious (or doesn't care) to the mess he has created.
This accident was not a midair collision though it was perhaps brought on by the pilot and.or controller thinking that a conflict was developing between the accident Cirrus and the other one on the long straight in final.
One problem that can develop at tower controlled airports is that they have planes flying different patterns rather that all joining on downwind.
I don't see just crossing over midfield as necessarily dangerous. At Boulder, Co. it is the standard entry procedure for gliders. Most of the time we land on rwy 8 so we circle to descend just south of the field and cross midfield at 800 to 1000 feet AGL and join left downwind, same as if we join right downwind for rwy 26. The gliders mostly land on the grass on the north side, not on the main runway and they fly a tight pattern especially on base. Many have no radio. I have never heard of a midair between two gliders or between a glider and a power plane WHILE LANDING, so it works ok. The power planes mostly, not all, come in on a 45 to downwind on the north side. The power tow planes ( Pawnee, Cub) fly the same pattern as the gliders and land the same spot.
There was a collision between a Cirrus coming over the field from the north and hit a tow plane which had taken off with a glider and was climbing west just north of the field, unfortunately fatal to 2 in the Cirrus and 1 in the tow plane, with the glider unhooking and landing safely. The Cirrus chute did deploy, don't know whether it was pulled or just by impact, and it lowered the plane down but it was on fire by then.
If there is traffic, the safer way to overfly midfield if I am in a power plane and going to use the full pattern and land on the main runway is to stay AT LEAST 500 to 1000 feet higher than the pattern and move a couple of miles north of the field before descending and joining on 45 entry. Coming right over the field at pattern altitude seems more dangerous, but can and has been done IF you really keep a close lookout for traffic on a 45 or long downwind.
I have flown in Canada a few dozen times, have a Canadian license and I entered the pattern both ways and no one ever told me that their standard way was midfield. In a faster plane, I often use an overhead approach in either country, and I do at my home airport.