If you’ve ever sat on a plane wondering why the pilot announced that you’d be landing soon but seemed to be flying in circles with no runway in sight, you’ve probably been in a holding pattern.

The article criticizes modern flight training for teaching pilots to fly overly large and inefficient traffic patterns, contrasting it with the traditionally tighter and more skillful patterns.

Many common "pattern sins" in aviation, such as excessively wide or fast patterns and poor speed control, lead to inefficiency, safety hazards, and difficulty in coordinating with other aircraft.