A way to do 60 circuits in a single hour!

[M61A1]

Sixty second circuits?

Can't call that circuits. He's doing donuts!

I like “dumbbell” circuits. If you have the right conditions you can pull off close to two landings a minute. 

 

I recall one instructor who said while many teach that key to a good landing was a stable approach, he reckons the the ideal was to be able to pull off a good landing from any approach.

 

i fly from a quiet private strip and practice all manner of approaches, and I think it helps considerably with being able to put the aircraft where you want it at any airstrip and under most conditions. 

 

I have also noticed that some get concerned about the absence of a wind sock. Sure, they’re a handy thing, but they’re hardly a necessity for anyone with functioning eyeballs. It’s very rare to find no visual cues about what the wind is doing.

 

Do instructors still teach students these things?

 

 

[facthunter]

 I disagree with you about windsocks. A properly designed one is very handy. Winds can vary over short distances also. You still look for other indications but ALL information you get helps a better outcome..  That doesn't mean you ignore other sources of information like raised dust or leaves  or air turbulence .

 

      Experienced people in responsive planes can arrive safely from very abbreviated approaches but that's not going to be a common technique at aerodromes where  traffic has to fit with others and some have a very large speed difference between cruising speed and "Bug" speed over the fence . ALL skills are good in their place but the basic circuit is a training process of cleaning the plane up to depart (even when you don't) and configuring and preparing the plane for the landing at the precise speed and position on the runway. A lot of flying is done where you don't DO any normal circuit. Getting your Certificate is far from the end of your skills needs to call yourself a competent pilot for all the situations you may encounter. I do agree with that. It's really just the basics to build on .Nev

 

 

[M61A1]

 I disagree with you about windsocks. A properly designed one is very handy. Winds can vary over short distances also. You still look for other indications but ALL information you get helps a better outcome..  That doesn't mean you ignore other sources of information like raised dust or leaves  or air turbulence .

      Experienced people in responsive planes can arrive safely from very abbreviated approaches but that's not going to be a common technique at aerodromes where  traffic has to fit with others and some have a very large speed difference between cruising speed and "Bug" speed over the fence . ALL skills are good in their place but the basic circuit is a training process of cleaning the plane up to depart (even when you don't) and configuring and preparing the plane for the landing at the precise speed and position on the runway. A lot of flying is done where you don't DO any normal circuit. Getting your Certificate is far from the end of your skills needs to call yourself a competent pilot for all the situations you may encounter. I do agree with that. It's really just the basics to build on .Nev

I didn’t say they weren’t handy, I was suggesting that there is an over reliance on them being there, and I have seen some demonstrate their inability to manage without them, despite many other reliable cues.

 

Competence with abbreviated approaches can enhance your likelihood of survival if things go bad, not suggesting they be done where they constitute a hazard.

 

 

[Garfly]

Here is some more great circuitry of the French kind; not as quick as the ones at Banadets (original video) but just as skilful, in another way.

 

This is not a time-challenge; it's a matter of getting it right on these tricky airstrips of the French Alps.

 

(Interesting that there's seven legs for a one-way strip rather than the usual five.)

 

The pilot/videomaker, Frédéric Peuzin flies an Airbus as a job but loves putting his Jodel, and himself, to the test.

 

HIs written comments accompanying this video on YouTube are instructive. I've stuck a Google Translation of them underneath.

 

With a bit of interpretation you can work out the gist of what he's saying.