Wartime airfield circuits

What would have been the extent or diameter of an airfield circuit during the Second World War ? I think probably no more than one or two miles given the close proximity of airfields in the likes of the Vale of York , Lincolnshire and East Anglia .
What is the distance today ?
I've often heard local civilian aircraft instructed to fly a visual circuit but is there an official CAA distance for a circuit ?

1.1 An Aerodrome Traffic Zone (ATZ) is airspace of defined dimensions established around an
aerodrome for the protection of traffic on the manoeuvring area of the aerodrome and all aircraft
flying in the vicinity1 of the aerodrome. (ICAO)

1.2 In the UK, an ATZ is established for the purposes of Rule 392 of the Rules of the Air
Regulations.

2. Meaning of ATZ

2.1 The meaning of the term ATZ is set out in Article 156 of the Air Navigation Order 2005 as
follows:

(1) The ATZ of a notified aerodrome which is not on an offshore installation and at which the
length of the longest runway is notified as 1,850 metres or less shall be, subject to
paragraphs (2) and (5), the airspace extending from the surface to a height of 2,000 feet
above the level of the aerodrome within the area bounded by a circle centred on the
notified mid-point of the longest runway and having a radius of 2 nautical miles.

(2) Where the ATZ specified in paragraph (1) would extend less than 1½ nautical miles
beyond the end of any runway at the aerodrome and this paragraph is notified as being
applicable, the ATZ shall be that specified in paragraph (3) as though the length of the
longest runway at the aerodrome were notified as greater than 1,850 metres.

(3) The ATZ of a notified aerodrome which is not on an offshore installation and at which the
length of the longest runway is notified as greater than 1,850 metres shall be, subject to
paragraph (5), the airspace extending from the surface to a height of 2,000 feet above the
level of the aerodrome within the area bounded by a circle centred on the notified
midpoint of the longest runway and having a radius of 2 ½ nautical miles.

(4) The ATZ of a notified aerodrome which is on an offshore installation shall be, subject to
paragraph (5), the airspace extending from mean sea level to 2,000 feet above mean sea
level and within 1 ½ nautical miles of the offshore installation.

(5) The ATZ of a notified aerodrome shall exclude any airspace, which is within the ATZ of
another aerodrome which is notified for the purposes of this article as being the
controlling aerodrome

David wrote:

What would have been the extent or diameter of an airfield circuit during the Second World War ? I think probably no more than one or two miles given the close proximity of airfields in the likes of the Vale of York , Lincolnshire and East Anglia .

The radius of the outer circle lighting for a WWII bomber station was typically 3 - 3,300 yards. Pilots would fly typically 300-400 yards outside the circle which makes the circuit around a 2 mile radius.

(The actual O/C radius was theoretically set by joining the six points, each of which was 2,000 yards off the end of each runway. The perimeter of the O/C was roughly 12 miles)

Bomber stations that were very close (Skipton / Topcliffe, Woodhall / Coningsby etc) would have a single common oval circuit when both were in use. Stations that were just 'near' had the flashing light bar where the two circles were closest.

But would bomber squadrons do that much circuit work compared to say an HCU???

canberra;67891 wrote:

But would bomber squadrons do that much circuit work compared to say an HCU???

Remember from my SBA research that in poor visibility it was not uncommon for an aircraft to circle its base for at least an hour before being allowed to commence finals- several cases of 'up to two hours'. The system was supposed to allow aircraft to land at 100 second intervals. It was typically 15 minutes per aircraft.

Graham

Sorry, what I actually meant was day to day circuit work. A pilot was supposed to do a tour of 30 ops, and Im guessing that things such as currency checks and IRTs(instrument rating tests) didnt happen, so apart from the check flight during the day before a raid Im guessing they did very little circuit work.

just out of curiosity is this what various aircraft from brize norton are doing when their flying endlessly over Cirencester and Fairford every day,from where i used to work you could see them coming from brize and then bank round to the left and return to brize, sorry for the ignorance but i dont know much about aircraft movements.

Yes, Brize is of course the home of the VC10, Tristar and C17 training units so the trainee pilots will be learning to fly the aircraft. Theyll also be practising different types of approaches. And occassionally theyll go to civil airports and do approaches there.