Three Aircraft, One Circuit
It is a fine Saturday at an unattended aerodrome inside a mandatory broadcast zone: runway 27, 900 m grass, left-hand circuit, wind 270/12. You are in a Cessna 172 joining downwind at 1000 ft AGL from a crosswind join from the north. Ahead of you on downwind is a microlight that has just called “late downwind, touch and go”. A Piper Navajo calls “five miles straight in, runway 27, 150 knots”. You can see the microlight; you cannot yet see the Navajo. The circuit is otherwise empty, the grass is dry, and there is no tower and no radar. Your 172 cruises at about 105 knots.
1. Set out the right-of-way rules that apply among the three aircraft, and who must give way to whom.
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The rules
- An aircraft landing, or on final approach to land, has right of way over other aircraft in flight.
- When two aircraft are approaching to land, the lower aircraft has right of way - but the lower aircraft must not cut in front of, or overtake, an aircraft on final approach.
- Aircraft already in the traffic pattern have right of way over aircraft joining the pattern.
- An overtaking aircraft gives way by altering heading to the right.
- An aircraft that is given right of way must maintain its heading and speed so the other pilot can plan.
- These rules allocate priority; they do not relieve anyone of the duty to avoid a collision. See and avoid sits above all of them.
Application here
- I am joining, so I give way to the microlight already established in the circuit.
- The microlight is ahead of me on downwind and is lower in the landing sequence. I must not overtake it; I follow at spacing.
- The Navajo is on final approach and therefore has right of way over me, the joining aircraft. At 150 knots, five miles is under two minutes.
- But the Navajo is closing on a microlight that is only on late downwind. The Navajo's right of way does not solve that conflict - it means the Navajo must anticipate it and integrate, not simply arrive.
2. What do you actually do - flight path, radio calls and escape options?
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Flight path
- Do not tighten the circuit or race the Navajo to the threshold. Widen and extend downwind to open spacing behind the microlight and to keep clear of the extended centreline while the Navajo is on final.
- Keep the microlight in sight continuously; if I lose it against the background, I say so and manoeuvre clear rather than assume.
Radio calls
- “(Aerodrome) traffic, Cessna 172, joining downwind runway 27, will extend downwind to follow the microlight, Navajo in sight/not in sight.”
- If I cannot see the Navajo, I say “Navajo not in sight” - that is a request for it to call its position again, not an admission of weakness.
- On final: standard calls, and an intention call if I am going around.
Escape options
- If the microlight goes around or slows, I can break off the approach to the dead side and rejoin, or orbit outside the circuit clear of the centreline.
- If the Navajo calls a go-around at speed, the safest place for me is wide and predictable, not on the centreline.
The principle: in an unattended circuit, my job is to be predictable, visible and early on the radio. Priority rules only matter after the collision-avoidance problem is solved.
3. The Navajo pilot says afterwards that straight-in approaches are standard there and he had right of way. Evaluate that claim.
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He had priority, but the claim is only half right.
- As an aircraft on final approach to land, the Navajo had right of way over me, the joining aircraft. That part is correct.
- But “straight-in is standard here” is a description of practice, not a source of rights. Where an aerodrome has a published circuit direction, joining traffic is expected to conform to the pattern, and a straight-in approach does not displace aircraft already established in the circuit ahead of it.
- His right of way did not entitle him to cut in front of, or overtake, an aircraft on final approach, and it created an obligation to integrate with the microlight already on late downwind. At 150 knots into a 900 m grass strip with a microlight in the sequence, the conflict was foreseeable and his to manage.
- Every pilot involved still carried the overriding duty to avoid a collision, regardless of who had priority.
The useful outcome is not winning the argument. If straight-in arrivals are routine at a busy unattended field with mixed speeds, that is a genuine hazard: raise it with the aerodrome users, suggest published joining and arrival procedures, and file a safety report if it keeps happening. Right-of-way arguments are cheap; midairs are not.