Seems to me local regulations dictate traffic patterns. In some instances you just can't fly over certain things. That and air traffic seem like they'd have more to do with how you line up and time your approach than jumping in ahead of someone who's making a long slow turn, flying over a DHS no fly zone, and getting rammed and fined on landing.
That being said, only planes I take a really long profile landing w/ in here are the 262 and AR234, just cause once you get em slow enough to touch down, you really don't want to be turning em all that much. F4U's require a near 90 degree runway approach and high angle of attack for me to land with any success, stall through the turn and touchdown at under 80MPH so my bellybutton end doesn't swing around in front of the plane. 109's and 190's I stall in w/ as much flaps as I can and try and power through touchdown so I don't snap or torque the gear off, and Buffs and P38's get a nice unpowered glide and touchdown with a couple notches of flaps, both usually from the 109/190 angle of attack, but much more forgiving in the stall touchdown.
As for real life? Never flown a plane in my life... Starting to get stuff in order to get my license. My cousin is commercail and supposed to be sending me all the books and study stuff she had for her things. Says it'll save me a couple thousand off the top. From there, my local field is about $140/hr last I checked for cesna flight instruction including fuel. Hopefully someday I can have as many stripes as that guy.
