![\"IMG_0894\"](\"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/IMG_0894.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nI fly a much smaller pattern than most instructors.\u00a0 That results in a pattern cycle time that\u2019s often about half of the other guy\u2019s.\u00a0 Couple that with my touch-and-go and you\u2019ve got an incredibly high number of landings practiced by my students and a much smaller cost-per-landing-practiced.\u00a0 I like to think that my students are learning more and spending less.\u00a0 We also examine the shorter runway length our technique leaves us with and we insist that the touchdown must occur in the first third of the runway.\u00a0 We also constantly plan for an engine failure on takeoff and plan our departure accordingly.<\/p>\n
Most flight schools insist on a long upwind departure to an arbitrary altitude, ignoring the suitability of the land below for an emergency landing.\u00a0 If the terrain beyond the runway is not suitable for such a landing, we turn immediately.\u00a0 That practice decreases our exposure to unsuitable landing sites AND shortens our time between landings.\u00a0 It also puts us at a lower altitude on our downwind leg. We take that into account in terms of conflict avoidance and planning for engine failure.\u00a0 We ignore the Whuffos who disapprove of anyone doing anything differently than the pack.\u00a0 Especially those who insist on reaching a published pattern altitude.\u00a0 Struggling to reach a standard pattern altitude is a waste of time, creates undue strain and shock cooling of an engine and contributes to fewer landings per hour. Just make sure that you are not operating beneath another aircraft in the pattern.\u00a0 That\u2019s what eyeballs and radios are for. If you examine the process of learning the wheel landing, you\u2019ll find that the swoop, sink and plant are far more important and difficult to learn than the roll out and stop.\u00a0 That\u2019s further justification for doing touch and goes with just a few landings to a full stop in order to learn the roll out and stop.\u00a0 My students have heard me say it before:\u00a0 \u201cI can teach a chimp to roll out and stop\u2026 let\u2019s work on the sink and plant\u2026\u201d I\u2019ve seen another outfit conducting tailwheel training with virtually ALL landings to a full stop.\u00a0 They think that they have to do that in order to teach tailwheel.\u00a0 I strongly disagree.\u00a0 I think my students would, too, considering that they have five or six times more landings in their logbooks!<\/p>\n Now let me play devil\u2019s advocate and defend the stop and taxi back:\u00a0 If you do a touch and go, you will be leaving runway behind you when you initiate the \u201cgo\u201d.\u00a0 That fact must be acknowledged and dealt with.\u00a0\u00a0 You will not be practicing the full stop, maintaining directional control in your tailwheel airplane while doing so.\u00a0 Stop and taxi back techniques also result in greater revenue for school and instructor. Is the touch and go worth dealing with the downside?\u00a0 Obviously I think so.\u00a0 But my opinion is based on my operations in the airplanes I commonly fly. My friend and colleague Chuck McGill strongly advocates the full stop and taxi back.\u00a0 Chuck teaches in larger, complex airplanes and his logic is excellent.\u00a0 I suggest a visit to Chuck\u2019s great website, www.safeflightintl.com<\/a>.\u00a0 His articles are excellent.\u00a0 Just remember the difference in the airplanes we use and perhaps the difference of our students\u2019 workload.<\/p>\n One of the most important things you can do to keep your pattern operation safe is to ask yourself, \u201cWhere am I going to go if the engine quits here?\u201d\u00a0 Keep asking yourself that question all the way through the departure and approach.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t like the answer at any point, then you must decide whether to accept the risk or alter the procedure to eliminate that risk.\u00a0 To steal from \u201cBrian\u2019s Flying Book\u201d, if there\u2019s no good place to land straight ahead during a departure\u2026 TURN! And, just as important, you may have to operate in a pattern filled with more conventionally trained people.\u00a0 If your abbreviated and low altitude patterns mess with their minds, you may have to either fall in line or go somewhere else.\u00a0 I have often found myself in the pattern with such a pilot.\u00a0 If he was skookum, we\u2019d just cut inside him on every other landing, making two to his one.\u00a0 It wouldn\u2019t interfere with his huge pattern and there would be no complaints (at least that I heard).<\/p>\n Now let me address an issue that is only of interest to those of us who teach:\u00a0 Our classroom is motoring around this pattern with other aircraft.\u00a0 We are trying to communicate with our student, as well as field any questions he may have.\u00a0 We are trying to do this while dealing with each of the rapidly occurring positions in the traffic pattern.\u00a0 The last thing we have the ability to deal with is communication from another aircraft.\u00a0 Remember that when you are in the pattern.\u00a0 If you try to engage the pilot of another aircraft in that pattern, you may very well be interfering with a teacher\u2019s lecture.\u00a0 Is that communication necessary?\u00a0 Just take that into consideration.\u00a0 And, unless it\u2019s absolutely necessary, never transmit to an aircraft when it\u2019s landing. When I ran the Sunriver airport, a Bizjet pilot nicely, but firmly, scolded one of my linemen for inquiring on the radio how long the aircraft would be there.\u00a0 The kid made that transmission as the jet was crossing the fence on final.\u00a0 The pilot was entirely correct to chide that lineman\u2026 and I should have trained the guy better!<\/p>\n We\u2019ve just scratched the surface of this subject.\u00a0 Noodle on it yourself.\u00a0 Come up with procedures that will accelerate your learning and keep your hide intact at the same time.\u00a0 And if you are a student of mine, get used to low, small patterns\u2026 or change flight schools. Happy Swooping, Brian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “Most flight schools insist on a long upwind departure to an arbitrary altitude, ignoring the suitability of the land below for an emergency landing.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2272,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[35,67,171,174,187],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2270"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a> I should point out that one particular airport where I do a lot of instruction is perhaps the finest I\u2019ve ever been to in respect to a place to go if the engine quits.\u00a0 I just can\u2019t find a spot in its pattern from which I can\u2019t make a safe landing if the engine goes \u201chack, cough, silence\u201d.<\/p>\n