Midfield - downwind

@pburger I re-read your post and you're right. The OP's post was a bit confusing and it's my home airport and I have pretty good sense of their expectations. They give you a runway and a pattern on your initial call-up. 3 miles out if you are joining the pattern and 4 miles out for straight in. You call at 3 or 4 and then they insert you in the pattern. In the OP's case he would have gotten a "Join the right downwind for 11, report midfield. Or if he was the only one in the pattern, "Right downwind 11 cleared for landing/option". What you would rarely hear is join the base, I've sometimes gotten it by asking, but only if the pattern is empty.
 
dmspilot said:
That's only if you believe the OP's recall of the tower's instructions are accurate. It did not say right downwind, but it also did not say downwind for which runway. There are four of them.
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Correct, but if the landing runway is in the ATIS, the tower doesn’t have to give the runway in use. Only in the clearance to land.
 
2nd505th said:
I've been flying for a while but I've got a feeling I still have a lot to learn. So I'm VFR into KFIN, dropping thru clouds that by the time I got to FIN were ~1500 with one rain shaft that I nearly had to turn into. 1 aircraft on final to RWY11 and is the only other AC. I'm 7 southwest.
Controller: Report 3 miles Southwest
Me: Now 3 miles SW.
(I'm thinking I'll get make R-base - follow traffic on final as I'm perfect position for that)
Controller: Report mid-field for downwind.
(Me fighting dark clouds, rain, some stress now and wanting to obey head toward the airport for midfield. 5 secs later I know this is not going to work)
Me: Um, I got to make a 360 into the rain shaft to get behind the Cessna on final. You said report midfield.
Controller: Midfield does not necessarily mean that, it means get behind the other aircraft.
Me: Sure - I knew that.

Ok - I guess I never knew that and was really stressed after that.

Can someone explain how report middle of the field means something else. I'll except being humbled here.
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I’ve never heard of report midfield downwind as meaning get behind the other aircraft. They just want to give you clear to land at that point. You can 360 or extend downwind, to avoid weather you can say unable 360, I can extend downwind. Make sure you have traffic in sight or at least on adsb. If you’re listening to frequency, you should have an idea of who is in the airspace at that time and you can plan accordingly. Speed up, slow flight, etc.
 
Just realized we’re talking about Flagler. Must have changed their identifier to KFIN. Been to that area many times over the years…long before a tower was ever there.
 
Velocity173 said:
Just realized we’re talking about Flagler. Must have changed their identifier to KFIN. Been to that area many times over the years…long before a tower was ever there.
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It's changed twice in the last 12 years or so. It was X47 and then XFL for a short while before FIN.
 
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