Day 8

Circuit flying today. A circuit is a short flight of between 6 and 10 minutes, comprising a take-off, a sequence of turns all in the same direction, staying close to the airfield, and a landing. It follows a specific pattern (although these can differ at different airfields) and pilots spend a lot of time flying circuits, often one after another in a continuous sortie. You fly one circuit, land, quickly reconfigure the aircraft for take-off while is still rolling along the runway, apply full power and take-off again. Here is an example left-hand circuit (so called because after take-off, you can see that all the turns (on the solid line) are to the left:


The good thing about circuits is that you can practice up to 10 take-offs and landings in an hour. Certainly the Beech Duchess will perform a circuit in around 6 minutes, although the other air traffic at Bournemouth can cause delays to that (at one point today I had to orbit on the downwind leg for about 5 minutes to make way for a 737).

The bad thing is that everything happens quickly, especially in the Beech, and so there is little time to think about or enjoy the experience. I was certainly tired by the end of my circuits today. More tomorrow, this time asymmetric. That's right, flying a circuit with one engine shut down. Does that sound like a good idea?

Unfortunately it is of course very necessary to know how to do that, in case the day comes when it is unavoidable.