VFR pattern work¶
Available now, at a towered airport.
What it does¶
A VFR flight whose destination is the same as its departure flies the pattern: takeoff, closed traffic, one or more touch-and-goes, then a full stop. Set VFR on the Settings page's Flight tab (see ADR 0008 in the repository) with departure and destination the same airport, and Ground taxis you out with no IFR clearance involved at all -- see Pushback for how the IFR-clearance-first rule doesn't apply here.
Closed traffic¶
Tower's takeoff clearance includes which way to turn: "runway two eight right, cleared
for takeoff, make right closed traffic." The side comes from the airport's own traffic
pattern data (1101 rows in apt.dat, the active runway's flow first); with none on
file, it defaults to left, the standard direction (AIM 4-3-3).
The circuit¶
Once you're airborne (not just cleared -- actually off the ground), the phase becomes PATTERN -- there's no Departure handoff for pattern work, you stay with Tower the whole time. Climbing through 40% of the way to pattern altitude -- 400 ft AGL for a piston, 600 ft for a turbine or jet -- Tower says "report midfield downwind."
Call it out -- "midfield right downwind, touch and go" or "...full stop" -- and Tower replies, sequencing you behind anyone ahead of you in the pattern or on the runway (M7-3, fed by the live traffic feed):
- Traffic ahead of you in the pattern: "number two, follow the Cessna on downwind" -- or "number three," "number four," counting everyone ahead of you, not just the nearest -- report it in sight the same way Approach's own sequencing call works, and your landing clearance waits until the one you're following has landed or gone.
- Nothing ahead of you, but the runway itself is still occupied: "number one, continue" -- try again next time around.
- Otherwise, a touch-and-go, stop-and-go, or "the option": "number one, runway two eight right, cleared for the option," or, for a full stop (the default if you don't say otherwise), "...cleared to land." Either way, "caution wake turbulence" folds in (F11, F12) behind a Heavy or Super that used the runway recently.
A touch-and-go's landing clearance lapses the moment you're airborne again, and the next circuit starts fresh -- Tower asks for another midfield downwind report, and you need a fresh landing clearance before touching down again.
After a full stop, once you're clear of the runway, you're handed to the field's own Ground the same way any arrival is: "contact Portland Ground one two one point niner." Phase becomes TAXI_IN from there, same as any other arrival.
Conformance in the pattern¶
A dedicated pattern monitor runs alongside the usual conformance monitor, spoken from Tower:
| Rule | Fires when | Ladder |
|---|---|---|
| Pattern altitude | More than the tolerance (200 ft at normal strictness) off field elevation + 1,000 ft AGL for a piston, 1,500 ft for a turbine or jet (by ICAO type designator; unknown types default to piston), once established at it this circuit -- suspended once you're cleared to land, so climb-out and the descent to land don't trigger it | "check altitude, pattern altitude one thousand" → "maintain pattern altitude, one thousand" → "possible pilot deviation" |
| Leaving the pattern | Farther than the pattern limit from the airport (3 nm normal, 4 relaxed, 2.5 checkride) with no call | "say intentions" → "possible pilot deviation" (no gentler first step) |
| Landing without a clearance | Touching down in the pattern without a landing clearance on file -- the same rule an arrival landing without clearance gets | Straight to "possible pilot deviation" |
Squawk¶
VFR pattern work squawks 1200, and since there's no assigned IFR code to compare against, the wrong-squawk conformance rule never fires.
Out of scope¶
- Non-towered fields. Pattern work needs a Tower; there's no CTAF self-announce handling for an untowered airport.
A Class D field's own Class B/C/D airspace entry rules apply here too, since that mechanism isn't gated to a particular flight phase -- though the combination isn't specifically covered by a test.
A VFR flight whose destination is a different airport doesn't fly the pattern at all -- see VFR flight following.