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My Flight Path - Holding Patterns

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16 views5 pages

My Flight Path - Holding Patterns

Uploaded by

Luigi
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© © All Rights Reserved
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My Flight Path

TUESDAY, MAY 17, 2011

Holding Patterns
This blog is covering two separate lessons both of which happened about two weeks
ago.

The first lesson was in the sim. This lesson was basically my introduction to holding
patterns. I started out with some ground going over the different types of holding pattern
entries and how to interpret an ATC non-published holding clearance.

A published holding procedure is one that is depicted on an chart. A non-published


holding procedure is one that ATC can assign that is not depicted on any charts and as a
pilot, I must interpret what entry I must use and which headings I need to fly in order to
satisfy the clearance.

Here is a basic holding pattern:

You fly inbound for one minute, execute a 180 degree standard rate turn (which should
take one minute), fly outbound for one minute, and then another 180 degree turn back to
the inbound leg. The result is a four minute delay for ATC to work with towards traffic
spacing and weather avoidance.

There are three different ways to enter a holding pattern. There's direct, teardrop, and
parallel entries.

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A direct entry is just simply flying to the holding fix, and then beginning the
holding pattern right away. It is best used if you are flying a heading that is
close to the inbound heading.

A teardrop entry is used when you are coming at the fix from
the opposite direction and on the opposite side of the
inbound path as the hold. Upon crossing the fix, you fly 30
degrees off the outbound heading for one minute and then
turn back to the inbound course.

A parallel entry is used when you are on the


same side of the inbound course as the hold
and you are coming from the opposite
direction. It is the most complicated of the
three. Upon crossing the fix, you turn and fly
the outbound heading parallel to the inbound
course for one minute, and then turn towards
the inside of the hold about 240 degrees to
intercept the inbound course.

Before you can identify which entry you need


to use, you must first figure out your aircraft's location in reference to the holding pattern.
This is fairly easy with a published hold. Here is an example of a published hold on
Clarksburg's ILS approach:

As you can see, the headings are clearly illustrated (211 inbound, 031 outbound) and the
hold is executed on the fix FONTZ intersection. So imagine you are flying your aircraft
directly to FONTZ. If your heading is south, that means you are coming from the north
and you would do a direct entry. If coming from the south, you would do a teardrop entry.
If coming from the west, you would do a parallel entry.

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Figuring out what entry to use becomes difficult when you are instructed to fly a non-
published hold. Imagine that the hold above is not published. This is how ATC would
instruct you to hold at FONTZ:"577SP, hold northeast of FONTZ intersection on the 031
radial, standard turns, expect further clearance in 10 minutes."

The best way to deal with non-published holds when they are assigned is to just draw
them out on paper. I would draw a small circle to represent FONTZ, then I would draw a
line coming from FONTZ at 031 degrees to represent the 031 degree radial. Since ATC
said right turns, I would draw the oval as if flying on that radial to FONTZ and then turning
right (right is standard, left is nonstandard). This result in a replica of the above published
hold. I would then draw my aircraft headed for the fix in order to figure out which entry to
use.

All this while maintaining altitude and heading.

As far as my first holding performance is concerned, I did excellent on my direct and


teardrop entries in the sim. However, my parallel was a little all over the place. When I
actually got in the plane and flew these holds, only my direct was good. My teardrop and
parallel entries were both sloppy. I did get a second chance on those however, and did
okay.

One more thing that you must take into account when flying a holding pattern is wind. a
tailwind on the inbound course can cause you to fly a longer outbound leg and a shorter
inbound leg. Say that you start your time for the inbound leg and it only takes 45 seconds
until you reach the fix. If this happens, you extend the outbound leg by 15 seconds. In
other words, fly outbound for 1:15 in order to make your inbound leg exactly one minute.

You also have to apply wind drift correction in the instance that you might have a
crosswind. If flying the inbound course you are having to correct five degrees, then the
rule of thumb is to correct three times that amount on the outbound leg. So you would
correct for 15 degrees.

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Holds are a little bit tricky but in the end its all about being able to realize your aircraft's
location in relation to the holding pattern and basically having the ability to know where
your plane is as if you are looking at your flight path from above.
Alex Durham at 11:22 AM

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ABOUT ME
Alex Durham
Fairmont, WV
Born April 5th 1990 Raised in Huntington WV. Went to Huntington High School, Marshall University for 2
years. Currently attending Fairmont State University.
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