Question

While monitoring the Cooperstown CTAF you hear an aircraft announce that they are midfield left downwind to RWY 13. Where would the aircraft be relative to the runway?

Answer 1

An aircraft announcing that it is midfield left downwind to RWY 13 is flying parallel and in the opposite direction to the runway, with the runway on the left side of the pilot. The term 'midfield' means the aircraft is halfway along the length of the runway during its downwind leg of the landing pattern.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question pertains to understanding aviation terminology and the relative position of an aircraft during a standard landing pattern. When an aircraft announces that it is midfield left downwind to Runway 13, it means that the aircraft is flying parallel to the runway in the opposite direction of landing (runway heading is 130 degrees, so the aircraft is heading approximately 310 degrees).

The 'left downwind' indicates that the runway is to the left of the pilot in the aircraft as they look forward. Therefore, the aircraft is positioned on the left side of the runway when looking at the direction of landing approach.

This location is part of the standard rectangular landing pattern that pilots typically follow when landing at an airport without air traffic control tower service. This pattern consists of four legs: upwind, crosswind, downwind, and base, followed by final approach. In this case, midfield refers to the middle portion of the runway, so the aircraft would be roughly halfway up the length of the runway while flying on this downwind leg.