Editing Airfield traffic pattern (section)

==Contra-rotating circuit patterns==
[[Image:Traffic patterns depicted in FAA-H-8083-25.jpg|thumb|Left and right hand traffic patterns as depicted in the ''Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge'' issued by the Federal Aviation Administration in the United States of America.]]
In cases where two or more parallel runways are in operation concurrently, the aircraft operating on the outermost runways are required to perform their patterns in a direction which will not conflict with the other runways. Thus, one runway may be operating with a left-hand pattern direction and the other one will be operating with a right-hand pattern direction.

This allows aircraft to maintain maximum separation during their patterns, however it is important that the aircraft do not stray past the centerline of the runway when joining the final leg, so as to avoid potential collisions. If three or more parallel runways exist, as is the case at [[Bankstown Airport]] in [[Australia]], then the middle runway(s) can, for obvious reasons, only be used when either a straight in approach is used or when the aircraft joins the pattern from a very wide base leg.