proper way to enter a non towered traffic pattern?

[twighead]

So you can:

- check the windsock
- look over the field layout (taxiways, ramp, fuel pump, obstructions, etc)
- fit in with existing traffic
- get the plane slowed down
- see the runway over a big nose
- fly a more consistent approach from abeam the numbers
- placate the old grinches who make a pastime of raging against straight-ins
- look cool

(any of which may or may not apply depending on the situation)

And I never said anything about a straight-in to 36.

You can do all that if you want. I would come straight in. And I never said it was you who said they would come straight in for 36. Go read all the other comments and you will see what I'm talking about.

 

[VNugget]

You can do all that if you want. I would come straight in. And I never said it was you who said they would come straight in for 36. Go read all the other comments and you will see what I'm talking about.

OK, I see where Secret Squirrel said it, but since you mentioned it twice both in posts otherwise responding to me, I thought you insinuated that I did. He was obviously kidding anyway and it wasn't supposed to make sense.

As far as entering on the initial/upwind and doing an overhead, I'm not saying you SHOULD do it, just listing possible reasons why someone WOULD (once again, depending on the situation.). And, well, you asked

 

[QuasarZ]

If you are listening to UNICOM for a while an hear no other traffic... I would go straight in. If there is traffic, it depends on who is where

 

[svcta]

For what it's worth....A couple of weeks ago I was headed in to an airport that I'm intimately familiar with and I got the numbers from the AWOS.....decided to say "hello" to some friends at a private airport 6 miles to the south of where I was going.....and by the time I got there the winds had changed from Variable at 3 to over 10 downwind of the runway I chose to use (and therefore entered on a wide base leg to). Not a big deal considering there was over 5000' available, but I did float a ways down the runway. Literally in less than 10 minutes the winds were that different(of course, an AWOS is a minute by minute snapshot).

Now, here's my point: If I had done an initial(overhead) like I like to do, I would have seen the windsock and avoided any trouble with the winds. Moral: Standards are just that. Standards. They do not cover every situation. In my example there was no one else in the pattern, so I would have been better off doing things my way.

Another point: The airport where I operate out of.....(private strip)the neighbors have expressed a level of discontent with my habit of making a low approach before every landing. For the last couple of months I have acquiesced to their not liking the noise that my airplane makes.....but here's my contention: The last two times that I have flown I have had the following happen: Dog run out in the runway and then chase me as I'm rolling out; guy mowing grass not visibly acknowledge that I'm coming right at him. That coupled with the fact that I've also had an old lady with Alzheimer's walk on to the runway that I was landing on (at another private strip where I used to operate) which forced a go-around means that from now on I fully plan on making an "obstacle clearance" pass before I land on any private strip at which I'm landing. I consider it a matter of safety. I also do this at any uncontrolled airport at which I'm landing at night...deer and coyote's and such are no fun to land on, and I've seen at least one of those things happen both at night at during the day. One time I almost killed a kid weedeating the centerline of the runway at a public use airport in south Mississippi even after I made every position report called for by standard protocol.

Pay attention and make sure that you know what's going on around you. Whether it's other aircraft or things going on on the ground. The onus is on YOU, and YOU'RE THE BOSS. Be careful out there.