I don’t think it’s good to allow a pattern flight from A to A to improve your grade status, touch and go at an airfield. These are not honest improvements to the degree. You should always have to fly from A to B, e.g. from EDDM to EDDS, so also short flights, but real flights and no pattern rounds , one by one. I don‘t like this and I don’t do it.
Henning
3 Likes
A landing is a landing. It still takes time and skill to do pattern work.
Actually, come to think of it, it takes more time and skill than actually flying. Activating autopilot, walking away for a bit, and coming back doesn’t take much skill.
22 Likes
Why not? its great to practice landings at one airport you take off and land again its great way of getting your landings up…
9 Likes
Practice makes perfect so why not especially when you don’t have a lot of time on your hands and want to fly somewhere. :)
2 Likes
There are upon plenty of touch and goes operations in my local airport.
However, I agree in terms of real-life busy airports. You shouldn’t really see an aircraft performing touch and goes at EDDM or KLAX as it is very unrealistic.
2 Likes
A landing may be a landing but what most of the “high grade- poor performance” people on expert and training are lacking is correct knowledge of flying an actual flight. From takeoff to climb and back. You don’t get that in T&Gs. IRL T&Gs are used to allow you to stay practiced in your take off and landings. Limiting landings to point A-B would best show the experience that a user has in leaving and entering an airspace, which is more desperately needed on expert.
2 Likes
You can say what you want. I think this is cheated. I do 50 rounds and I’m 50 points away, that’s nonsense.
I see your point, and I definitely agree that we need more experience in actual enroute procedures. However, this is part of the reason there’s a flight time requirement as well. You can farm landings with T/Gs, then fly normal flights for flight hours.
2 Likes
Real life procedures cant be “cheated” thats just how it is…
2 Likes
Yesterday I saw a 20 x T&G at THE EDDM, in real life the second largest German airport, impossible. So I’m going on the slow tour. From A to B.
1 Like
I see your point:
At big airports - its annoying - I can’t argue there
At small airports - its fine - its normal IRL
However, I don’t think it’s cheating…
4 Likes
Flight time doesn’t mean anything alone either. You can easily get up in the air and not complete the flight just flying and quitting before you land.
2 Likes
It’s fine but only at small GA airports. IF is meant to be realistic and on TS mainly you commonly see 777 doing pattern work. I woudn’t mind if I saw a 172 doing some touch and goes cuz that’s realistic
1 Like
I agree with that but at small airports i see nothing worng with pattern work
1 Like
It’s realistic at small airports
1 Like
Calling pattern work cheating is an interesting take.
Keep in mind that pattern work is great for practicing items like crosswind landings. Rather than land once and taxi to the gate, you can actually keep attempting landings learning how to adjust ailerons and rudder simultaneously. Practice like this will help keep point A to B flyers from skidding off the runway into taxiway traffic when landing in a gusty crosswind.
Both pattern work and flying point A to B are valuable. Each tool should be used and mastered. To rank one higher than the other is not correct.
2 Likes
Some of us do patterns because we can. That’s just the way it works.
IF is a place to fly freely, and not all of us are 100% imitating real life procedures.
4 Likes
This is a real-world procedure that pilots-in-training use to get landing experience. If you don’t like it, too bad.
2 Likes
Practicing pattern in say a TBM, will greatly improve the quality of your landings in larger aircraft. Do some patterns in a TBM in 20KT crosswinds, and if you can perfect that it will be easier to land a larger plane in those conditions.
2 Likes
Patterns is good way to improve your ATC and landing and takeoff skills
(I don’t do patterns My self that much as I fly usually The shortest flight in The world in IF)
2 Likes