Lets say you have no radio, and don’t know the wind direction. What about right hand circuits?
You need to study the cornerstone of what separates real pilots from the sheep the PPL theoretical knowledge – the signal square which to my amazement is an ICAO thing (I really thought it was ex WW1 UK RAF) 
I’ve never seen anyone implicate the presence of the A/G in unintentionally suppressing life-saving situation awareness enhancing communications…it is an introspective blind-spot in the UK
This is not easy to address. You would need to change PPL training (to be more into US-style independent-thinking) and concurrently deal with non-ATC airfield tower staff who enjoy their power a bit too much. And PPL training will never change. Let’s face it – they can’t even introduce GPS into it.
Most professions self-select on character profile and the UK has too many A/G and (to a lesser extent) FISO people who like bossing people around and “play ATC”.
Amazing to read for a French pilot how bad it must be in the UK.
In France, you announce yourself a few minutes from an inbound reporting point (if one exists on the VAC), then overhead the inbound reporting point, then do an overhead 500 ft above circuit height, look at the windsock, decide which way to go, announce the fact that you are in the overhead and what runway you will take, then descend outside the circuit, join at circuit height at the beginning of the downwind (which you will announce on the radio together with intentions, i.e. full stop or T&G), base, final, runway vacated & taxying. Very similar to how it’s done in the US, and it mostly works smoothly even with a lot of traffic if everyone says what they do and if people don’t start flying B52 circuits.
If you hear over the radio which runway is in use, then you can direct yourself immediately to the beginning of the respective downwind leg and skip the overhead.
If there’s an AFIS on the field, you can join via base or long final. I’ve never encountered any “power tripping” AFIS in France as I have in Germany.
Exactly Rwy20….the salient difference is the unimpeded use of radio…. and as far as the comments about non-radio aircraft, how many non-radio aircraft do you honestly encounter? It is rare….even paragliders use radio…and if the odd rare non-radio arrives he will have his eyes on swivels even if others are more lax…
Rwy20 wrote:
In France, you announce yourself a few minutes from an inbound reporting point (if one exists on the VAC), then overhead the inbound reporting point, then do an overhead 500 ft above circuit height, look at the windsock, decide which way to go, announce the fact that you are in the overhead and what runway you will take, then descend outside the circuit, join at circuit height at the beginning of the downwind (which you will announce on the radio together with intentions, i.e. full stop or T&G), base, final, runway vacated & taxying. Very similar to how it’s done in the US, and it mostly works smoothly even with a lot of traffic if everyone says what they do and if people don’t start flying B52 circuits.If you hear over the radio which runway is in use, then you can direct yourself immediately to the beginning of the respective downwind leg and skip the overhead.
It is essentially done the same way in Sweden. As Rwy20 says, it mostly works smoothly even with a lot of traffic.
The original non radio stuff like the signal square dates back to WW1 or before, and probably until the 1960s, when radios were much less common than today.
Today, non radio is rare in actual equipment carriage, and can be addressed very cheaply with a handheld radio and a headset adapter, but there is a pretty significant “civil liberties” community which insists on their right to fly non-radio.
I think the whole non radio entitlement should be dispensed with. IMHO it creates too much crap in the PPL theory which then fails to cover much more important stuff e.g. how to use a GPS. But many would disagree… and nothing will change.
And most airfields don’t have the signal square anymore, or if it is there it has rotted into the ground long ago.
OTOH one does have to somehow address the radio failure scenario, which for VFR is currently undefined. Better equipped pilots address it by carrying a handheld radio…
Some reality: last weekend I was on one of the little islands off the German coast. Nice little airstrip, beach close, good restaurant, so lots of traffic in and out, plus regular twin engine Brittan-Norman Islanders serving tourists. On such a day, at any moment, at least one or two, sometimes three, in the pattern, and one or two waiting to depart. When I landed, I was lucky because the two guys in front of me and the one departing in between knew what they were doing. However, later, sitting on the beach, I could see what really went on in the pattern. I had the downwind leg right in front of my eyes. Published pattern altitude is 600ft, with a little distance to the beach, and published procedure calls for joining the downwind leg right where the crosswind leg ends, at same altitude.
Reality was, some flew downwind very high, at 1000ft or higher, resulting in a sort of combat approach after base turn to the field; some diddled along at 300ft, high pitch angle; some were out in the distance, some came in directly over the beach; some turned base so low you think they’ll never make the field; one small/ ultralight even actually overtook one of the Brittan-Normans inside of downwind (he was flying directly over me), cut into the course of the Brittan in base, and forced it into go-around (I wish I had been able to listen to the radio :)))
I just cannot imagine how an overhead joining procedure, which adds a third dimension, would ever work in this case. In theory, yes. In reality, not quite….
Your description, Euroflyer, sounds exactly like the UK.
Including the lightweight traffic cutting up the heavier stuff and forcing it to go around.
One of my other cripes is when you call up for join the A/G radio operator just replies with “runway 28, QFE 1004” whereas they should say pass your message so all other aircraft joining can form a mental picture where you are.
Bathman wrote:
One of my other cripes is when you call up for join the A/G radio operator just replies with “runway 28, QFE 1004” whereas they should say pass your message so all other aircraft joining can form a mental picture where you are.
Never had a problem with that – if an A/G operator says “runway 28, QFE 1004” then I’ll reply with
“G-ABCD, Runway 28, QFE 1004, 5 minutes north east, will report Downwind” (or right downwind, depending on circuit direction).
Peter wrote:
Including the lightweight traffic cutting up the heavier stuff and forcing it to go around.
I’ve actually been cut off (I’m certain unintentionally) at an airfield with full ATC!
