I never had much luck doing what was comfortable at a towered airport. If I did something comfortable Tower quickly advised me I was doing it wrong.

lowlevelops wrote:If you travel the length of a 10,000' runway in a cub before you turn, it would seem that you "tie up" the runway for at least a minute or probably closer to two. That seems like a long time at a busy airport.

I turn whenever it feels "comfortable" unless advised otherwise by ATC.

Bonanza Man and kase are tower personel and members on this site, maybe one or both of them could chime in on what they expect from pilots....

Good point, lowdevelops ... occasionally I fly in and out of Albuquerque Sunport (ABQ) or Roswell (ROW), each with 13,000+ ft main runways, and at ABQ, at least, a lot of commercial jet traffic ... turning 45 deg right off the runway centerline at a safe altitude (at least 500 AGL) in a slow-moving single engine prop has not yet resulted in a tower tongue-lashing .. more than likely it was well appreciated.

That's why FAA doesn't issue rules on flying the pattern, rather than recommendations, because there's simply too many situations to have to cover with a single set of rules.

500-800 feet.