By Mark Murray, EAA 394554
This piece originally ran in the January 2024 issue of EAA Sport Aviation magazine.
A cool thing about being a flight instructor is that you get really familiar with your local airport pattern. A bad thing is you get really familiar with your local airport pattern. After several days of passing over the same trees, you can count the squirrels. Not that I’m complaining.
However, nothing will break up the monotony like an engine failure. So, this article will focus on how to plan for the eventuality of facing such a failure in the pattern. My last article (“Take Off Like a Boss: Or maybe like a carpenter,” November 2023) focused on the departure leg. This article will pick up at the top of the departure, just before you turn crosswind, and proceed around the pattern.
Just for the sake of those new to aviation, airport patterns have several basic defined legs, such as departure, crosswind, downwind, base, and final. Yes, there are specific rules about airport patterns. A common one is FAR 91.126, “Operating on or in the vicinity of an airport in Class G airspace.” Also, sectional charts and the Chart Supplement(formerly the Airport/Facility Directory) provided by the FAA also give specific directions for each airport. And the Aeronautical Information Manual (AIM), also published by the FAA, has lots of great information. But, consider this:
Ultralight and recreational pilots were enjoying backcountry flying long before it became a “thing.” Sometimes it was a lonely dirt road or field. Sometimes it was a buddy’s backyard. Many times it was a private runway. Using such remote and sketchy runways sometimes requires techniques and methods that seem a little unconventional to a pilot only familiar with the hardtop at a public airport.
For example, sometimes there are obstructions on approach, and it may require a nonstandard pattern and approach. Sometimes there are absolutely no safe emergency landing zones anywhere near the runway. All of that, taken with the knowledge that a safe pilot is always going to be prepared for an engine failure, helps a pilot develop some additional techniques for flying any pattern. I’ll let you decide which techniques also allow you to be legal.
Departure to Crosswind
Going back to the risk associated with departure, for a moment let’s set aside the “only land straight ahead” idea. There comes a point on departure where, depending on the airplane, pilot and conditions, a turnback would be possible. Again, you have to be the one to decide that, and the only way to know is to become very familiar with your airplane’s gliding characteristics.
For the sake of this discussion, assume that you are that competent with whichever particular airplane you’re flying. Once you’ve decided what altitude would allow a turnback, it would be best to add greatly to that altitude. Why? For one thing, you’re going to lose several seconds processing the surprise that an engine failure has just happened. And then you need to process the best action for recovery. Those seconds are going to cost you several precious feet — maybe hundreds of feet — of altitude.
A technique employed by many backcountry pilots is the “shift-over” departure. On climb-out, when safe to do so, slightly shift over a few hundred feet but still maintain runway heading. The idea is that if you have to turn back, you’ll only need to turn 180 degrees to intersect the opposite runway heading.
Otherwise, it would be a 180-degree turn back to the opposite heading, followed by continuing the turn by another 45 degrees back toward the runway because now you’re offset from the center line. Finally, another 45-degree turn in the opposite direction so as to actually line up with the runway. Those 270 degrees are going to eat up a lot of altitude.
Moving on, let’s consider the altitude at which you turn crosswind. The AIM tells us this: “If remaining in the traffic pattern, commence turn to crosswind leg beyond the departure end of the runway within 300 feet of pattern altitude” (“Key to traffic pattern operations,” Figure 4-3-2). Generally, that turn is made at 700 feet AGL. Some airplanes with excellent climb rates will reach 700 feet AGL quickly and can easily turn crosswind just beyond the departure end (this will also depend greatly on the length of the runway and conditions).
Others with poor climb rates may find themselves several thousand feet beyond the departure end before reaching 700 feet AGL. In this case, if there aren’t emergency landing zones available, an engine failure just after turning crosswind could be sketchy, especially if you have a tailwind on crosswind. One would be tempted to try a turn back to the airfield, which could be disastrous at such a low altitude, even without the tailwind. Maybe turning crosswind sooner, still beyond the departure end of the runway but while the airfield is still within gliding distance, would be safer.
Downwind
Generally speaking, I like to fly the pattern in such a way that I could at least reach a safe area on the airport grounds, if not the runway itself, in the advent of an engine failure. So, how close can you fly the downwind leg in relation to the runway?
Interestingly, the AIM also states, “A pilot may vary the size of the traffic pattern depending on the aircraft’s performance characteristics” (4.3.3 Traffic Patterns). And that makes sense. You can’t expect the pilot of a private jet to fly the pattern in the same manner as a Cessna 150 pilot.
And it stands to reason that an ultralight or even a lighter sport airplane could fly a somewhat closer and tighter pattern than the Cessna. Even within our sport there are wide differences in the glide capabilities. A Challenger, for example, glides much better than a Flightstar or Quicksilver. So, it would be reasonable to expect to see a Quicksilver flying downwind somewhat closer to the runway centerline than even a Challenger.
On the other hand, you can see how much of a hornet’s nest of trouble an ultralight pilot could make if they started making tight airport patterns in the midst of a bunch of students shooting touch-and-goes in Cessnas. Can they do it? Sure. Will it upset several pilots who’ve never seen anything but one pattern scale? Yep. Should the ultralight pilot fly it tight anyway? Maybe. Maybe not. But one thing I can say for certain; communication will help greatly.
One airport I train at occasionally is also frequented by a flight school teaching in high-performance, single-engine turbine airplanes. As you’d guess, their patterns are much larger and faster than mine in the Challenger.
Honestly, I was a little apprehensive at first about mixing it up with faster airplanes. But all it took was a little communication. I explained that I cruised very slow, and that I would expedite the turn to crosswind and base a little sooner. Likewise, they offered to extend their departure and downwind a bit. I also flew the downwind a bit closer in than they did. Within just a few orbits it was like clockwork.
Base and Final
We usually start our descent on downwind, just before turning base. Are you turning early enough that an engine failure would allow a glide to the runway? Is that even practical at your airport? Again, your airplane’s glide ratio will dictate how early that turn is made, and the availability of potential landing zones dictates if an early turn is even needed.
It’s normal for pilots to keep some power in at least until turning final. But, are you depending on that power setting to actually extend your glide to the runway? If you do, there’s no way you’ll reach it if the engine fails.
Depending on power to reach the landing spot is a common bad habit I’ve seen in pilots of all types. To be fair, there are situations when a little power helps keep the airplane under control, and it’s true that some airplanes land much easier with power. For example, because the Challenger glides so well for the type of airplane it is, I teach all my students to glide into the landing first. I want them to understand what it is capable of, and I want idle-power approaches, round-outs, and flares to be their go-to muscle memory.
Later, I introduce them to approaches and landings with power. However, with the Flightstar, I’ve found that because it’s such a draggy airplane, gliding in at idle makes the landing a little too difficult for the beginner. I have no choice but to reverse the sequence; powered approach and landings first, followed by glide-in landings.
How does this work out in a pattern where we are trying to make sure we can reach the runway at all points? It’ll take practice with different descent power settings. The trickiest part is deciding when to turn base and when to reduce power to idle. In our Challenger training, we hold a lower power setting throughout base and through the turn to final. On final, we reduce to idle once we know for certain that the runway is made.
Again, this will make the pattern look somewhat different than what a typical GA pilot is used to seeing. Downwinds are closer. Turns are made closer in, and final approach may be steeper and start higher. Recently, I had an opportunity to fly a friend’s RV-12. It had been a while since I’d flown something so aerodynamically clean.
I flew downwind in the RV about the same as the Challenger, but it was necessary to extend it quite a bit for the long, shallow final needed. Interestingly, the RV’s flaperons were ineffective, so I tried a forward slip. Rudder travel seemed limited, so I couldn’t slip nearly as hard as I can in the Challenger. The point? No matter what, the pilot of this RV-12 has to make shallow approaches. Can a Challenger and RV-12 pilot share the pattern safely? Sure. Just talk to each other.
Play Fair
If nothing else, I hope this article has illustrated the need to look at patterns on a case-by-case basis, especially when keeping the engine failure potential in mind. There may be times when you’ll need to fly it more like a GA pilot. Other times it may not look much like a rectangle at all, especially when approaching your buddy’s strip hacked out of the woods. Either way, there’s no time for counting squirrels.
Next time we’ll look at engine failures in cruise.
Mark Murray, EAA 394554, of Georgetown, Georgia, was always fascinated by airplanes, and then discovered ultralights thanks to an article published in National Geographic in 1983. In 2008, he earned his light sport repairman maintenance rating and turned his hobby into a business, eventually becoming a CFI and an A&P mechanic.