As most of you probably know (because i go on about Gatwick so much ), that i live under the flight path to the west of the airfield. Near Dunsfold to be precise. Today i was spotting from my garden. About 90% of the aircraft that come into Gatwick come from the east (even if they come from America, they usually do a 180 degree turn over my house). But today i saw an Easy jet A319, a MyTravel A320 and a British Airways B737 (along with a European B747 from Sanford and a BA B777 from Houston) fly slightly higher, to the south of my house, coming from the west then 10 minutes later they came back from the east and did the usual thing. But for those three aircraft to have come from the west (EZY - Geneva, MYT - Reus and BA - Somewhere) they must have come from the south/east/southeast, done some sort of turn (90 degrees - 180 most likely) gone over, done another 180 to come back then the usual 180 (i'm aproximating here, they usually do an about 140 degree turn over my house).

Anyway what i'm getting at is why do they need to do that, when some planes just go straight im from the west?

Also are there any sites or anywere that show the landing/stacking etc paths for Gatwick.

Cheers
-Stephen