PilotEdge Forums

Kudos to the controller this afternoon who was handling (what I consider to be) a fair bit of traffic all over the place. Well done.

I got cleared to land at Bakersfield when I was about 8 miles South. I flew my 45 entry into the 30R, Right downwind pattern. Then I thought that since I was cleared to land, i didn't need to fly the pattern. Could I have flown straight in, once I was cleared to land?

Unless the controller provides additional instructions, cleared to land means you you can enter the pattern any way you'd like (or not enter the pattern at all, which is usual).

normally a controller would provide a pattern entry instruction (ie, make straight in, enter left base, enter right downwind, etc), but in lieu of that, I would've made a straight in if arriving from the south for 30L/R.

The 45 degree entry is a non-towered thing. I've never seen a tower expect a 45. They'll call the entry, or else go ahead and aim for the numbers.