Pattern Problems: Why Sloppy Entries Can Lead to Close Calls

Pattern Problems: Why Sloppy Entries Can Lead to Close Calls

When you fly, do you practice difficult things that you don’t do well? Or do you focus on the easy stuff, leaving harder skills to rust until you need them most?  Pilots tend to focus on takeoffs and landings, which make sense, since they’re critical phases of flight. By comparison, the approach to landing, or even the entry into a traffic pattern, garners less attention, probably because it seems trivial compared to landing a plane.  Sadly, a l…