Like almost everybody, I was trained on the standard rectangular traffic and landing pattern.

It's predictable - great for avoidance, as one knows where to look for other planes.
It's easy to learn - it's, again, predictable.
It's easy to test - see the two above.

For big ol' fast aircraft like a C172 or a Baron it still makes sense.

For my tiny little slow aircraft, though, I took some advice from a zillion hour Air Force pilot and turned those two corners into one big half circle.

Okay, not so big for me, but the turn to base and the turn to final are one continuous turn. In my biplane I can keep an eye on the runway the whole time and adjust as needed.

The FAA is looking into this as well, as they think it may solve some of the infamous turn-to-final-spin crashes.

Now, then, though I could fly a really close in pattern, I still follow the standard pattern altitude and distances on the downwind, and make two calls on that half circle - one for turn to base, and one for final. It is a bit shorter for this than a lot of folks, but I'm only doing 45-50 miles an hour.

Your thoughts?