If everyone in the pattern was looking, talking and flying where they were supposed to be, this pattern cut-in wouldn’t have been a surprise. (Yes, it’s Photoshop trickery but it happens everyday.)

by Thomas P. Turner

I was instructing in a Beech Baron. The day’s flight was nearly complete, and we were finishing up with a few VFR circuits to practice landing in various configurations, using Runway 31 at the Hutchinson (Kan.) Municipal Airport (HUT), a towered facility. Turning crosswind, I heard a Cessna Citation, also on a training flight, check in with the tower a mile outside the final approach fix for the VOR Runway 4 procedure, requesting a low approach. Very familiar with the airport and its aproaches, I knew the Cessna jet would quickly descend from 3000 feet to 2040 feet MSL a few miles out, flying southwest to northeast…