Thank you for putting this video up. I use the overhead many times at our local non towered airport. Many times bringing in a flight of airplanes. Makes it easy work and I can keep the “fast movers” (compared to the Cessna traffic) separated from each other by holding over the field higher waiting for a gap in traffic big enough to bring in my flight without causing angst for the student pilot traffic around my flight.

I’ve watched the Navy trainers fly this pattern over my house for years. The Blue Angels do it too, one after the other and it’s super cool. Every Sunday evening during the summer the Blues come in from their weekend airshow at high speed over the field and break one at a time out of formation into the landing circle. I never get tired of living under the downwind.

I actually enjoyed that the audio stopped because we did these in the Fleet without saying a word on the radio.

Great to see it in GA. That's what I learned in Naval Aviation flight school and what I flew my entire career in KC-130s ....... Thanks!

4:03 hahaha Scott my man! “We’re gonna do a shallow turn because we are going so slow.” “Don’t need more than 45º bank here.” 😂 Awesome airmanship. We are lucky to have access to your experience.

Very helpful. Thanks for posting this. I’m teaching a client in a Steen Skybolt currently

An actual engine failure at high altitude above an airport will put the pilot in exactly this position: the need to execute a series of descending 360 turns to enter the downwind leg of the (emergency) landing pattern. Well worth practicing!

"Hey who's doing the fighter jet type flying in the circuit?"😁

Thanks Scott for the discussion and demonstration.

Hey, Jarhead, we lost the sound about half-way through the video.

It's a great manuever and fun to watch. I once saw a C141 do a 360 overhead at Osan AB, Republic of Korea from the flightline. As a student pilot at the Lowry AFB aero club, my instructor and I called it a day early once when we heard the tower at Buckley AFB (ANGB in 1973) repeat a call with a mass arrival of 25 F100s over the tower VHF channel. We taxied over to the tower and watched the show from there... the 120th TFS was returning from a deployment to Nellis.

Scott, I do the initial in my RV 7 at home base. I have done the initial in our CE560 to do exactly what you said, mix with traffic an get set. Works well when needed and the people understand the procedure. Problem is there are pilots that have difficulty with a normal pattern entry. So there is that….

I agree about the curved approach. Rectangles not useful. I don't agree about cutting into downwind from overhead. It's unexpected in GA and that's not good.

Thanks for this, Scott. I do the overhead break landing from time to time at my small field in my RV-8 when there is no one around. Really fun, and a good challenge, like the power off 180 landing in the commercial PTS. My overhead breaks are a bit tighter, and seeing how you fly it helps me out.

Quality!!!

Thank you for that Scott. Enjoyed that. With a fast aircraft I might like to come in below pattern altitude and climb turn to shed speed, like 180ish to 140 with a 45 deg to get to 140 gear speed, but uncertain if a towered field would be okay with the request -- I guess they could always decline I suppose.

Great video! That said, if I performed an overhead at my home airport I would get flamed so badly...

Did this in training in the Navy as a Flight Surgeon, works great in a low wing aircraft but the runway is blocked out by the wing in high wing aircraft such as C182rg I fly now.

This is very helpful- the PHAK/AFM don't really explain this maneuver very well. It seems to make a lot of sense to use this maneuver in a tactical setting and in a jet because it lets you maintain maximum velocity to the field, dump a lot of energy quickly to configure for landing, and then land in a relatively small space/short time. I'm not sure I understand how it makes it easier to handle high traffic flow, or why I, in my Citabria or Skyhawk, would ever find this to be the better choice.

A word of caution: Realize that a lot of GA pilots will not be aware of these approaches and will have no idea what some of these radio calls mean.

G'day Scott, Well, um...; while I can understand how "Normal" the Overhead-Break may Feel..., For people who have retired from Military Flying....; To be honest, it makes about as much actual "Sense"..., in the Randomly unscheduled and wildly Overcrowded Skies of General Aviation in the USA, Today...; As if some old Bush-Pilot featuring Whiskers growing out of their Earholes showed up at Sydney's Kingsford-Smith International Airport, Expecting to come on down and "Drag the Runway" by flying the length in Ground-Effect, dipping their Mainwheels on the Bitumen to Test if the Surface might be able to Actually take the Weight when eventually touching down..., "Because that's how I Learned to do it, when landing at an unfamiliar Location, Before committing to putting the Aeroplane's Weight onto the Ground... ; And That IS what's advised in the Beaver's Training Manual/Op's Procedures Handbook ; so it definitely isn't illegal...!". It's not Quite The Aeronautical equivalent of Sovereign CitiZen-ism ; But, perhaps, maybe the days when such old-fashioned, "Once Were Warriors..." type Displays of how things Used to be done, Once upon a time..., Would be well-regarded, Have all gone away...; And now instead of being admired for Your ("trademark"...?) Crisp, clean, no-nonsense "Overhead-Breaks"...; You may well find yourself being berated for, "Buggaring-up the Flight-Paths of every other Aircraft within the Circuit, by persistantly insisting on making NON-STANDARD Approaches...; Which Confuzzlicates all the poor silly little Plasticated Norms..., who now constitute the Majority Of Humanity...., and so Therefore whatever they decide is to be "Normalised" is Whatever we will be expected to Fit in with... Because, Confused Norms Trying to fly on Autopilot, and/or Trying to fly Like an Autopilot ; Are wildly Dangerous Norms, because they've been Trained to expect Predictability, Rather than Originality... Welcome to Growing Old, mate... The Thymes They be A' Changeling...! On a happier topic... Regarding the old question of the actual viability of DIFFERENT Ways of attempting the Legendary infamous Turning Of Impossibility... A delightful Englishman has a YT Channel named, "Flying For Fun - Trecanair" And this morning I watched his latest Upload, "Aeronca C3 - The Impossible Turn ?" He Demonstrates how to do it, the Orthodox way, from 300 ft, taking about a minute at minimum Sink-Rate of 350 Ft/Minute and that would never work... But, by poking his Nose down to 45° below the Horizon, & rolling on 45° of Bank...; on-camera he did 180° around the Aximuth in 15 Seconds with maybe 120 ft of Height-Loss... And he repeated the manoeuvre, going both ways. It's what he says he has done In real life, when his Ancient JAP Engine has gone quiet on him on Takeoff. "Nose-DOWN, ROLL in & TURN HARD..., ROLL Out, Pull Out, Line-up, Flare..., & Touch-down...." Or, Words to that effect. Rather than trying to "Conserve Height"..., while gliding, and turning, in a Powered Aeroplane which has suddenly gone silent when climbing away from the Runway... I suspect that, while the actual Heights, Airspeeds, Sink-Rates & Degrees per Second going around the Azimuth Card will vary...; his recipe of a 45° Dive with 45° of Bank will Either Return one to the Runway recently departed... Or Demonstrate the Impossibility of reaching that Goal - and Highlighting the pressing NEED to raise the Nose above the Horizon And Flare before Arriving Short of the Runway - but with Wings level, not stalled, not Spinning, and still Under Control at Impact... I like his thinking... And, what's your Take..., on Leaving Lockable Tailwheels Unlocked, while alighting in Big Old Conventional Taildragging Multi-Engined Hairygoplanes ? As much of a "No-no-NO..!" At least, as it would be, To go Taking off with Full Landing-Flaps Selected ? Perhaps ? That man Dan, Appears to be On a very Bad trajectory.... The Cornfield Inversion was a Walkaway event. The Tree beside the Runway Meant Multiple Fractures & Concussion... Bad Shit Cometh, generally, In dollops of Three, y'see...; So the Next time he may well be Transferred to the Daisy Up-pushing Brigade, It kinda seems, to me... Which is a worry. But the Choices are all His to Make. Such is life, Have a good one... Stay safe. ;-p Ciao !

Thanks Gunny. As an Army helicopter pilot I never got to learn that. I can see how the fixed wing services could handle a lot more traffic that way. Right there at Dempsey Army Airfield (Ft. Wolters), the most active airport in the world at the time, we lined up in a daisy chain and just hinted at the pad and moved on to parking. We were scattered out at multi-pad stagefields all the way to Possum Kingdom Lake but all came into the one pad at Dempsey at end of day.

Rounded turn, constant rate turn, racetrack, oval,poweroff 180 whatever you want to call it is safer than a 90 degree turn base to final...although it creates some visibility problems, but it is my much preferred final

Good video, hope people watch it. I’ve been asked twice this year which (instrument) approach im doing when I call my initial.

Hey Scott, at my home airport there is a lot of military contract training (AAL program) and 360 overheads are flown at 1,500 AGL. How would that change what you show in this video?

I with others that say that overhead patterns have no place in the GA world. Most GA pilots do not have any idea what one is and can easily lead to collisions if the timing isn't right.

We will be so far advanced we will be using teleportation yet still disputing pattern work, entry etc. smh. Thanks for the video Scott!!

Hey Scott, there is a lot of military contract training at my home field but to deconflict with other traffic 360 overhead patterns are flown at 1,500 AGL. How would that change what you show in this video?

Hmm very interesting method. Might take an instructor with military experience and practice this. That descent rate from high key is a bit much for me though 1000fpm+ 😮

What are your speeds during your downwind, roll to base and then roll to final along with your descent rate?

Sound stops at about 5:40 for me

I was really looking forward to this one but no sound on the second half

do you keep the speedbrake on the whole time after you use it?

I saw that when the speed dropped below 90 in the final turn to base, you dipped the nose more. But what I couldn’t fathom was that you were not looking at the instruments but more outside for visual reference. Was it your experience and instincts that kicked in? Maybe I’m making a mountain out of a molehill, but you may say that I’m conditioned to expect you monitoring the instruments more.

I love reading the haters comments

Why? It’s non- standard and not stabilized.

No sound after 5:30?

Scott - always enjoy your videos. After you correct the audio maybe you can add in some words of warning. At my airport, we have a wannabe military RV owner who enters the pattern this way every time - complete with the “break left”. The unfortunate part is that we are a heavy student training and glider operations uncontrolled airport and his entries have rattled more than one student flying solo in the pattern trying to figure out what he is doing.

No sound second half ?

Didn’t talk about safe speeds at all?

Nice but wish you had sound.

no sound starting at 5:40.

I had an idiot at my airport in a high performance military training aircraft call out "initial point". I had no idea what he was talking about. Next thing I know he comes screaming right up beside me as I'm climbing out. Military tactics, have no business being used in a GA pattern/airport. Guarantee some idiots will be out there trying this today and think it's legit for a GA airport.

Joining upend is a standard common manoeuvre for circuit entry! This procedure should NOT be promoted, you are creating a danger situation as normal pilots would be doing it as taught🤮 If you are that close to landing as in short final mixture should already be rich, a go-around is a busy time so it’s just a confirmation it’s full rich!

I have no idea why anyone would ever do this. I've been flying for 30 years and never seem anyone do this. Certainly no one in a GA pattern would expect or understand this. This video is likely to encourage idiots to try this. Just don't understand why you post this on a GA oriented website.

Interesting video as per usual. I only saw 2 green indicated during the last approach in the video. Please explain. Thanks.