Left vs Right

[andyjohnston.net 614]

Not a political post, instead talking about directions.

Is it just my imagination, or do the towers often seem to tell you to "fly left downwind" when they actually mean right and vice versa?

[Cpt_Piett 3,290]

Don't think I've ever been asigned to anything other than a left circuit..

[Bobsk8 11,901]

8 minutes ago, andyjohnston.net said:

Not a political post, instead talking about directions.

Is it just my imagination, or do the towers often seem to tell you to "fly left downwind" when they actually mean right and vice versa?

I think most airports have left traffic, easier for pilot to see everything. 

[fppilot 4,256]

The direction, L or R, is the direction you keep the airport off your respective wingtip.  So left downwind means you are keeping the airport off to your left.  Right downwind you'd be heading the same directon, but off the other side of the airport, looking at the airport off your right wingtip.

https://www.flight-training-made-simple.com/circuits-briefing

[andyjohnston.net 614]

Yes, I get that.  But I find that in MSFS, as opposed to older versions, they'll often tell you to fly left when the field is to the right.  Meaning you would have to fly away, and in a big 360^o circle just to get there.

[Langeveldt 268]

Yep I find this a lot..  Was never an issue in previous sims. 

[Bobsk8 11,901]

https://silicium.dk/fsx/FSWeb/LearningCenter/AirTrafficControl/TrafficPatterns.htm

[andyjohnston.net 614]

Yes, the question has nothing to do with how a pattern works.

[Maxis 1,706]

11 hours ago, fppilot said:

The direction, L or R, is the direction you keep the airport off your respective wingtip.  So left downwind means you are keeping the airport off to your left.  Right downwind you'd be heading the same directon, but off the other side of the airport, looking at the airport off your right wingtip.

https://www.flight-training-made-simple.com/circuits-briefing

Oooh goodie that's a nice website ! Thank you and added to favorites!

[ryanbatc 12,087]

43 minutes ago, andyjohnston.net said:

Yes, the question has nothing to do with how a pattern works.

In the sim they always give you left....which wouldn't work at a towered airport all the time...  you'll get right traffic patterns too especially if the airport has parallel runways...but also with single runways.  Where I used to work we had a East/West runway and aircraft coming from the NW would get right downwinds....from the SW would get left downwinds if we were using RY 27.

[Fielder 3,337]

They may be confused by the windsocks! 🙃

[cianpars 1,000]

More likely fly left upwind then land downwind in msfs I'm afraid Andy.

I'm sure that it could be programmed to request an overhead rejoin too, which is what I get most frequently in the real world.

[Tom Wright 420]

Do you mean as an example you're instructed to fly "left base" when actually the airport is to your right?

I guess in this scenario you could just do an overhead join from the dead side to put you on a left downwind and then left base.