Just started flight school. My CFI explained traffic patterns in a way that muddied the waters and was extremely confusing. You cleared it up perfectly. This channel is awesome.

I thought both your part 1 and Part 2 videos were spot on. Thank you for putting together such comprehensive and well animated videos. I’m a 200 hour new pilot and love to continually expand my knowledge base and appreciate the time and effort your putting in to make us all think about what we’re doing with the point of all doing this safer and consistent.

You just might've given a big boost on making my approaches more accurate, AMAZING JOB! Didn't know I can do these methods.

New sub.. Thanks ERAU for providing such detailed content. There's so many others out there that have YT videos, but don't come close to the detail and visualizations AND in flight information provided to new or existing pilots. Thank you for providing such great content. And I love the 360 videos too. Nick

In a nutshell: for runway of heading R get reciprocal R-180 (or R+180). Call that D (for downwind heading.) Then calculate the 45, call it FFF (fly forty Five). If left pattern (less) FFF = D-45. If right, FFF=D+45 Then just fly at 2 mi distance, keeping the wing pointing at the runway until you see FFF on the side of the Direction Indicator that matches that wing (and runway) Then turn to FFF until at mid point, then turn D. This helped a lot. Thank you! I guess if you’re far enough out, you can see the quickest way to get to FFF and turn that way when at least 2 nm. One can try to mentally draw a paperclip with a 45 bend, off the DI. Good idea to use heading bug for the runway to orientate oneself.

I laughed so hard at that sky diving incident cartoon

I'm flying traffic patterns from the beginning of the summer but nobody explained this to me like you did! Nice work! :)

Wow, what a great, detailed video on traffic pattern!

2:36 you should've seen my reaction. You got me!

Very informative and concise. Thank you for your videos! One suggestion regarding pattern intercept heading calculation. With your current approach you have to calculate 2 unknown variables: first - downwind heading, and then - the intercept heading. This might sound more complicated than it should be. Instead you could just use the known runway heading as follows: for left-hand pattern - RWY heading + 135; for right-hand pattern - RWY heading - 135. In case of a negative result, add 360 to it. Should be much easier to remember and calculate.

Very informative and to the point, also very well prepared animations. Both videos are outstanding. 👍🛫🛬

This is the lesson no CFI ever taught me.

instrução excelente, parabéns.

This is awesome! Thank you!

Cheers fella. Top bloke

Your video is perfect. thanks ....

thank you man your explanations are awesome

good animation, made it simple !

If you get confused as to what is the proper procedure you can always as the tower to "vector you" to the entry point or the threshold. Towers would rather do this than have pilots make errors.

im confused about how you know when you're on the entry heading point; in the example it was 005; can you clarify the trick used in the example; thanks

My airport has a traffic procedure prescribed in the Airport Facility directory. That is an FAA rule. But the County that provides services has a conflicting noise abatement rule that is entirely different from the AF Directory. One day I was following the noise abatement procedure and the ATC controller admonished me for not following his interpretation of the FAA rule. The next time I followed it and a county employee told me I was violating a noise abatement procedure approved between the county and the local community. I brought this conflict to the attention of the tower the next time I flew. A different controller said, "yes, I can see the problem". However, I decided that in accord with the U.S. primacy clause of the U.S. Constitution where a federal Law supersedes any local law, I decided to follow the traffic pattern as prescribed in the AFD. I'm sure the county had may have had issues with this, but I decided to stay out of any conflict and let the two jurisdictions work out the issue. I never heard anything about this after that. However, It is my opinion that the FAA takes primacy over any state, county or local law and should be followed. If in doubt, follow the FAA regulation. No judge in his right mind will rule that an inferior entity will supersede a Federal entity.

I fly at a non towered airport and my instructor gave me the skill set similar to this and would appreciate if more pilots without non towered experiences would watch this because I have had to deal with a significant amount of pilots who think a non towered airport is a free for all

Traffic pattern legs are identified incorrectly According to the AIM: "1. Upwind leg. A flight path parallel to the landing runway in the direction of landing. 6. Departure leg. The flight path which begins after takeoff and continues straight ahead along the extended runway centerline. The departure climb continues until reaching a point at least 1/2 mile beyond the departure end of the runway and within 300 feet of the traffic pattern altitude."

Dropped from an airplane? That made me laugh

very informative thank you

where the heck can a guy find those nice airport diagrams like the one pictured at 0:50!?

Retired MD-11 Captain, watching this video was making me nauseous. Standard traffic pattern is left traffic unless you are flying a helicopter. If my memory is correct traffic pattern altitude is 600 feet AGL to 1500 feet AGL, with recommend traffic pattern altitude of 1,000 AGL. The 45° entry is recommended but not required. Read the AIM before you have a melt down.

I can see where this is needed for someone who flies with only a whiskey compass, but if you have a heading indicator staring you in the face it's pretty easy to pick out the reciprocal and eye ball the 45. If you can't maybe you should go back to school and learn some basic geometry.

You finish your example of a left pattern with a diagram of an entry to a right pattern. Consistency is less confusing.

ineresting!

Very confusing indeed, but all is possible! Just wish they made it for non pilots not pilots already in training!🤣

.It is not wise to direct aircraft to the same point in the sky, i.e.entry points, imho.

0:45 - anyone know what book he's using?

Why can't I just add or subtract 45 to the active runway and cut out the rest of the math? What am I missing?

Having a bit of trouble with the math. Can someone explain it further.. like, more in-depth?

I learn better with pictures and cartoons

In all my years associated with aviation, I have never listened to such mumbo jumbo excessive computation about the simple airport traffic pattern.

Rwy 5 ? never hear ! Rwy 10,entrance heading 160 45 degrees down wind head 190 , base heading 100 and final heading 010 Rwy 10!

ALTERTEAUEOD HAHAHA

At time 3:06 255 degree to enter???

Ohh my God. Who would ever go through that?

gosh! why it's so complicated 😂

Nice, I am mot interested in flaying, to complicated

8:04 Downwind "about a half mile away" from the RWY. Let's fact check that, please. Shouldn't that be "One mile"

Very confusing. Do real pilots do these math ? I have seen videos where they just put some numbers in the autopilot box as per ATC direction.

I never use traffic patterns on landing airplanes, on flight simulators. I just used common sense and spatial awareness of my distance to the airport if my distance is too short to the runway make a go around ASAP, if the distance from the airport is large enough to configure the aircraft for landing.

I'd rather land on a very spacious field and avoid all this nonsense

I've been flying for over 20 years...I've never seen or heard such unnecessary details on how to enter the pattern at a 45 degree angle...way too much information and way too much math...you should be able to figure out what a 45 degree leg looks like and fly it...you're not going to get busted if you end up flying a 44 degree entry leg...you don't need all that math to figure out what heading will give you EXACTLY 45 degrees...so relax and just figure out what a 45 degree leg should look like approximately...and fly that ground track...this video, honestly, I don't know why they made it so difficult and intimidating for new pilots.

Всем счастья🙏и за меня полетайте❤🙏😘