"nightjar" wrote in message
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On 18/04/2021 20:04, Rod Speed wrote:


"nightjar" wrote in message
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On 18/04/2021 11:03, Rod Speed wrote:


"nightjar" wrote in message
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On 17/04/2021 20:41, Harry Bloomfield wrote:
It must have done at my count 40 very tight circles, before I got
bored watching. It had landing lights on, around 10 miles from the
airport and had white lights flashing on wing tips.

Visibility strobes.

I couldn't see any navigation lights.

Not necessarily on during daylight.

What might that have been doing?

Waiting at a holding point for permission to join the landing circuit.

If it was that you'd expect that he would have seen
that before

That depends upon the type of airport, the type and size of aircraft and
how busy it gets. Most of the holding points for my local airfield are
rarely used because it rarely gets that busy.

and they don't do that in very tight circles.

Depends on the size of the aircraft.

Bull****.

I used to in mine.

Don't believe it.

Flying VFR, you have to keep a lookout for other aircraft. That is much
easier when orbiting (flying in a circle) than when trying to fly a
racetrack.

But there is no point in doing VERY TIGHT circles because
you cant see anything like as well when doing that.

And it turns out that the very tight circles observed
had the center of the circles drifting over the ground
so they wouldn't have been doing what you claim.

You can orbit purely by using external references. A racetrack hold needs
you to spend a lot of time looking inside the cockpit at your instruments
and at the time. Not a problem when flying IFR, as ATC radar should keep
you safe from other aircraft. A serious problem when trying to keep a
lookout for other aircraft.

And so is VERY TIGHT circles, which is why no one does that.