Take-off, Approach & Landing Circuits

Circuits are where all your preparatory work from exercises 1-11 come together, and where you will learn to land your aircraft, drawing on and honing the skills you have learned to date. This will include climbing, climbing and descending turns, medium turns, straight and level, descending, and stalling.
We will begin with an outline of what circuits are, and then fill in all the details. Initially, as with almost every new exercise in flying, it can seem a little intimidating with everything that has to be learned, but just give it a little focused attention, and sooner than you may expect it will just come naturally, like a song in your mind that you just cannot seem to stop.
If you are lucky, I may even sing you a "circuit checks" song in the video section!
There are five basic legs to circuits:

take-off leg

crosswind leg

downwind leg

base leg

final leg

Which way to turn in the circuit?
The STANDARD circuit direction is to the LEFT. Wonder why? Where does the pilot sit? Yes, on the left! So where is it easier to see the runway from when flying circuits? The left of course! So it makes sense that if you do a left hand circuit, and the airfield remains to your left, that you, as the pilot, will have the best view of your landing path, no matter where you are in the circuit. It just makes life easier. You will refer to each leg as "left crosswind", "left downwind" and "left base".
BUT
Very often you will be expected to do a NON-STANDARD, RIGHT HAND circuit. This is usually due to terrain, or for noise abatement. The names of each leg remain the same, but will be referred to as "right" instead of "left", as in "right crosswind", "right downwind" and "right base".
Left or Right Circuit?
If the airfield is on your RIGHT HAND SIDE, then you are Right Crosswind / Right Downwind or Right Base, and all your turns will be to the Right and you will be flying a Non-Standard Right Hand Circuit Pattern.
If the airfield is on your LEFT HAND SIDE, then you are Left Crosswind / Left Downwind or Left Base and all your turns will be to the Left and you will be flying a Standard Circuit Pattern.
The take-off and final legs don't get given a direction like left or right, because they remain the same no matter in which direction the circuits go.

Circuit Heights
Circuits are, by convention, flown at 1000 feet above circuit altitude. This means that if your airfield elevation is 3700 foot, then your circuit altitude is 4700 ft. If your airfield elevation is 100ft, then your circuit altitude is 1100ft. This is true most of the time, but not always!
Sometimes Circuit heights are published in the AIP's that are different from the standard height, eg. Virginia Airports circuit in Durban North, elevation: 20ft - circuit height : 800ft. Richards Bay's circuit, elevation 108ft - circuit height : 1500ft.
Assumptions may be wrong
Before assuming an airfield you are flying to has a standard circuit pattern and or height, it is best to check.
The big boss baddie in the Steven Segal Movie "Under Siege II", said it so well when his goon told him our hero was dead, but that he hadn't seen the body:"Assumption is the mother of all f*$%-ups!" he said. Prophetic words, since they were later all killed by the "dead" cook, Segal.
So, don't be taken by surprise by a "dead cook"; look your destination airfield up in the AIP's Airfields Directory to discover if it has a standard circuit, or boasts something more challenging. (Or ask your Instructor).

Circuit Checks
In the circuit, there are certain checks that are mandatory as well as advisable. You are expected to learn these off by heart, unlike your ground checks for which you are expected to use your checklist.
These are:

After Take-off checks - to be started by 300ft Above Ground Level (AGL) at the latest.

Downwind checks - abeam the tower (or when you get a word in edge-ways on Downwind).

Finals checks - to be started by 300ft AGL latest, before your landing. During your training, you will be learning some checks for items that do not exist in your training aircraft. Here's why:
Training aircraft are by their nature very basic. As soon as you have your PPL, you may convert to larger and usually more complex aircraft. If the checks for these more complex aircraft are not already entrenched in you, you are very likely to forget them, which could have disastrous and expensive results. These checks are "gear down", "pitch", "fuel pump on/off", (high wing gravity fed training aircraft don't have fuel pumps, but their low wing counterparts do. It is advisable to have this check in your check list arsenal even if you initially train on high wings).
For the time being, the circuit checks you don't understand are "place-markers" for when you graduate to more complex aircraft.


After Take-off Checks

B	Brakes --------- ON/OFF for pressure
U	Undercarriage -- UP
P	Power ---------- FULL
P	Pitch ---------- SET
M	Mixture -------- RICH/SET
F	Fuel pump ------ OFF
F	Flaps ---------- UP/COWL FLAPS OPEN
L	Landing lights - OFF

Downwind Checks

B	Brakes --------- ON/OFF for pressure
U	Undercarriage -- DOWN
M	Mixture -------- RICH/SET
P	Pitch ---------- SET
P	Power ---------- SET-CHECK WHITE ARC
F	Flaps ---------- 10 degrees
F	Fuel pump ------ ON
H	Harnesses ------ SECURE
H	Hatches -------- SECURE
L	Landing lights - ON

Finals Checks

C	Carb heat ------ COLD
U	Undercarriage -- CHECK DOWN
F	Flaps ---------- 30 degrees/as required