When I was based at PDK airport, a very busy airport in Atlanta, GA used by many business jets, the tower would routinely route smaller aircraft approaching from the east to cross over mid-field at or above pattern altitude and enter a left downwind for Runway 3L. Doing so while there were other aircraft in the pattern, landing and taking off. The reason was to keep the longer Runway 3R open for business jets landing and taking off. In this instance, a pilot would be crossing over two active runways.
Fred Simonds responded to Troy Whistman’s “Upsetting the Rhythm Upset” (July 2016 “Readback”) comment by saying: “Yes, it would have been possible to make left traffic for Runway 13. However, in order to do so, we would have had to cross over the active runway. As best I can recall, no controller has ever asked me to that.”
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