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Chapter-8 Flying a Traffic Pattern-V20_Sport Pilot Handbook 8/30/2021 4:42 PM Page 1

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Chapter 8

The Airport Traffic Pattern

The Lowdown on Gettin’ Down

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What goes up, must come down
Spinnin’ wheel, got ta go round

Blood, Sweat and Tears
Spinnin’ Wheel

The last chapter had you flying circles and rectangles and angles and I promised you there was a
reason for the teasin’; well, there is. Welcome to the airport traffic pattern, where you cash in all
your hard-earned practice maneuver chips and get something useful for them.
Last chapter, we created building blocks. Now you’re at aviation’s version of Legoland, and we’re
going to put the pieces together into something every pilot needs—a way to get down to earth. What
goes up must come down, and in order to
accomplish that, you’ve got to go round—
round the airport traffic pattern, that is.

The airport traffic pattern is an invis-
ible rectangular box over every runway
around which pilots fly at a given alti-
tude and sequence in order to safely
transition from air to ground. I want to
stress invisible, because I’ve had stu-
dents who expected to see the lines and
labels in the book painted on the ground
I think I’m on downwind
near the airport. Of course, the same stu- but my instructor hasn’t
dents thought the states would be arranged all the ground
blocks yet. So don’t
painted different colors, too (OK, I exag- quote me on that.
gerate a little...but not much).