Can someone explain what "Enter right traffic downwind" means with respect to flying in from the N,S,E and W?

>Can someone explain what "Enter right traffic downwind" means>with respect to flying in from the N,S,E and W?Definitly not an expert but this is my interpretation. Visualize flying south for airport with a East-West Runway (R9 and R27). You ask ATC for directions to land. Landing is currently on 27. Downwind is the opposite of takeoff direction so it would be at 90 degrees. Right traffic means flying at 90 with the airport to your right, ie. you are North of the airport. Left traffic would put airport on your left (you are South of runway). You continue on 90 until far enough out to turn right to 180 which is base and then another right turn to 270 for final.

Thanks, now I can attempt to better follow the instructions.

Put simply- a right hand circuit (or part of) is all right turns whereas a left hand is all left turns.A full circuit consists of 4 parts - the take off and climbout on runway heading,the crosswind leg(90 degrees to RW heading ,left or right according to circumstances),downwind leg(reciprocal of RW heading),base leg(reciprocal of crosswind) and final approach (hopefully on RW heading).Dave

Hi Cliff,An excellent description of a right down-wind.In the US, traffic patterns are usually left patterns. Aviation and airport charts show that "right" is used (as it's non-standard), but show nothing on the direction when a left pattern is used. A left pattern puts the airport on the pilot's side during downwind and base, the 2 critical phases of the pattern to establish a stable final leg.A right hand pattern may be used where noise abatement or terrain make a left pattern not practical or desirable.Now, holding patterns are by default right hand turns- so go figure :).Bruce.

Except at KMOD where we have two parallel RWYS 28L & 28R, many times we have ac flying left and right traffic respectively doing TnG on 28L and 28R. Quite fun for the controller in the tower!Tony

Yes- my home airport KBJC (Jeffco) has 29 left and right, and we get the same simultaneous T&G's.Bruce.

Bruce, Thank You. And to finish this off just one more example of a right pattern. I live in San Diego and KSAN has one runway [9 & 27]. Since we are so close to the Mexican border and they have a large airport just to the South of the border all planes landing on 27 are right pattern to avoid overfly of Mexico.