Barry Hancock posed the question: "What the heck are 172's doing in the next
area code before turning base?"

Don't know where you fly, Barry, but even way back when I was taking
instruction at the Long Beach, CA airport, one would often be told by the
tower when you made your initial callup: "Enter left downwind for 25 left,
call abeam the tower, you're number 4,5,6,7 (pick one) for landing following
a Cessna, continue on downwind, I will call your base turn". You'd then
proceed almost to a point where you needed an extra couple of gallons to get
back to the runway (OK, OK, that's an exaggeration, but you'd certainly be
WAY beyond engine-out gliding distance, for sure) before hearing the
instruction to turn base. An often heard transmission from someone in the
pattern went something like: "Uhhh, Long Beach tower, Holepoker 45 X-ray on
extended downwind for 25 left, have you forgotten me"? It's probably worse
nowadays.

You could avoid this by just going to another local airport, though
sometimes they'd be in the same situation. Not necessarily a good solution
particularly when the airplane and instructor were based at a Long Beach
FBO.

I wholeheartedly agree with your contention but the real world very often
rears it's ugly head.

Dan Schaefer