Why We Fly It
Van Nuys sits in the middle of the San Fernando Valley. Every lap in the east pattern passes over homes, schools and businesses. A pattern flown wide or sloppy puts training aircraft over more houses, more often, at low altitude.
One Source Aviation, in conjunction with the Prop Park and the Van Nuys Airport Citizens Advisory Council, adopted this pattern for Runway 16L as a courtesy to our neighbors. It keeps the climbout on a predictable line, puts the downwind over the 405 freeway where engine noise competes with traffic noise, and keeps our airplanes off the neighborhoods to the east.
Van Nuys depends on the goodwill of the people who live around it. The families, students and business owners below hear every departure and every lap of the pattern, and their complaints shape how the airport operates for everyone. Every time you fly this pattern well, you show them that One Source Aviation is listening and that we take noise seriously.
- Flies the same predictable track every lap, so the noise stays over the same freeway and parkland instead of spreading over homes, schools and businesses.
- Keeps the downwind over the 405, where traffic noise already covers engine noise.
- Holds pattern altitude and avoids unnecessary power changes over homes.
- Treats a wide pattern or an early turn as something to fix, not something nobody will notice.
- Runway
- 16L Short east runway
- Pattern altitude
- 1,600 MSL About 800 ft AGL
- Start the turn
- At the plant As it starts on your left
- Downwind
- Over the 405 Northbound
Don't drift east. Fly runway heading until you reach the start of the water treatment plant. Make a steady left U-turn and fly the downwind over the 405. Unless ATC tells you otherwise.
The Pattern, Leg by Leg
Hold the extended centerline after takeoff. Correct for wind so your track stays straight. No drifting east.
As you reach the start of the water treatment plant (the Japanese Garden), make one constant-radius left U-turn. Roll out heading north and join the 405 where it straightens out, north of the bend.
Fly northbound with the freeway under you. Don't let the downwind slide east over the homes.
Turn base when the 16L threshold is 45° behind you, over your left shoulder, or when the tower calls your base. Don't overshoot final toward 16R.
Numbers and Landmarks
Say each answer to yourself, then tap the card to check.
Altitude, and Why Burbank Cares
Fly the east pattern at 1,600 ft MSL. With a field elevation of 802 ft, that is about 800 ft AGL, lower than the 1,000 ft AGL pattern many pilots learned.
The reason is the airport about 6.5 NM east. Airliners landing on Burbank Runway 8 descend from the west and pass directly over the Van Nuys east pattern. The FAA says those arrivals cross the pattern descending through about 1,600 ft AGL. At the old 1,000 ft AGL pattern, that left about 600 ft between them and us. That meets FAA separation standards, but it can set off a TCAS alert in the airliner, and a TCAS alert usually ends in a go-around.
- Old pattern
- 1,000 AGL ~600 ft below BUR arrivals
- Our pattern
- 1,600 MSL ~800 ft below BUR arrivals
- TCAS go-around
- Costly Delay, noise, fuel, workload
Climbing even 100–200 ft high on downwind eats into the buffer this pattern exists to create. Level off on time and trim for it. Aircraft on the Burbank Runway 8 final are not talking to Van Nuys tower.
The FAA ran 90-day evaluations of 900 ft and then 800 ft AGL east-side patterns to cut down on these TCAS events. The 800 ft AGL altitude is now the published traffic pattern altitude for 16L/34R in the Chart Supplement, which adds: “Due to aircraft on KBUR Rwy 8 final receiving TCAS RA, please adhere strictly to TPA and climb gradients.” Departing 16L, do not climb above 1,750 MSL until crossing 1.5 DME south of the VNY VOR/DME or south of the departure end of 16R. Always confirm on the ATIS and NOTAMs before you fly.
ATC Comes First
The good-neighbor ground track (the turn at the plant and the downwind over the 405) is voluntary. The 1,600 MSL pattern altitude is not: it is the published pattern altitude for 16L/34R. Van Nuys is a towered airport, and any instruction from the tower replaces it immediately: an early crosswind, an extended upwind, a different altitude, a 360, or a switch to the other runway.
- Comply with the instruction, then read it back.
- If an instruction puts you over the neighborhoods, fly it anyway. Safety and separation outrank noise.
- When the tower releases you back to normal traffic, return to the good-neighbor lines.
- If you can't tell what the tower wants, ask. "Say again" beats guessing in a busy pattern.
| Tower says | You do |
|---|---|
| "Make left closed traffic" | Fly the good-neighbor pattern: runway heading until the start of the plant, downwind over the 405. |
| "Turn crosswind now" | Turn now, even before you reach the plant. ATC overrides the procedure. |
| "Extend upwind" | Keep runway heading past the plant until the tower calls your turn. |
| "Extend downwind" | Stay over the 405 northbound. Don't drift east while you wait. |
For CFIs: Teaching It
- Brief it on the ground first. Walk the student through the plant, the 405, and 1,600 MSL on a satellite map before the first lap.
- Teach track, not heading. "Runway heading" means holding the extended centerline. With a westerly wind, an uncorrected climbout drifts east over homes.
- Name the turn point. Point out the water treatment plant on the first departure so the student knows where the turn starts.
- Watch the altitude. Low-time students often overshoot pattern altitude on crosswind. Call it early.
- Model the priority. When the tower deviates you, say "ATC comes first" out loud so the student learns the order.
- Explain the why. Students fly the pattern better when they know it protects the airport's relationship with the community, not just a rule on a page.
- Debrief deviations. Wide downwinds and early turns are debrief items, the same as a missed radio call.