Chasing my tail.

Interesting situation coming back into the zone last lesson. Active runway was 08, although the winds were 160°, you can’t use runway 15 for landings because someone built a large block of condos at the end of the approach. The VFR route back from the practice area brings you in over the downtown core.
Understand that on the way out we tend to follow the shoreline of the lake, on the way back you follow the highway, it helps to separate the traffic.
Also understand that Toronto is a tall city, obviously the CN tower is massive (although not the tallest structure in the world anymore, thank you Dubai!) but a lot of the financial towers are sizeable as well (50+ storeys).

Usually when you come in for 08 over the city, ATC clear you for a left downwind. The flight school don’t like solo students doing this, to be fair it can be a bit dicey over the downtown when you are trying to lose altitude to join the circuit. Circuit height is 1250 ft , the CN Tower is 1815 ft for example. There’s also the sightseeing traffic on the City tour to avoid as well. If ATC give us a left downwind instruction we are not meant to accept it, we need to request a right downwind, pretty much in the same way that we are not allowed to waive wake turbulence separation requirements either.

Bob is trying to prep me for flying to the practice area solo. Just like my solo circuit flight, he needs to be sure that I can cope with whatever ATC choose to shove my way; this includes having to refuse the left downwind*.  So suitably primed, I did indeed refuse said instruction. ATC weren’t exactly rude but they weren’t overly thrilled either. I got told to orbit a set point. I distinctly got the impression that it was a case of “fine, go over there and don’t bother me for a while then!” Spoken through a slightly clenched jaw.

So I orbited, and orbited and orbited. I got dizzy and slightly queasy (I never get airsick btw), I felt like a dog chasing its tail, running around in circles and slightly confused about the lack of results. You talk about needing to be in front of the plane. I was at least one orbit behind it. Bob took pity on me and showed me how to pull the rpm back and drop 10° of flaps. This slows everything down and allowed me to catch back up with the plane.  ATC came on the radio once, to tell us it was going to be a few more minutes.

Eventually they took pity on me and let me land. My stomach landed about 5 minutes after.

 

 

* sometimes learning to say "no" to ATC is a harder lesson to learn than the actual flying!