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Gene and Aaron;
I have not included in this presentation the FAA method. It is well presented elsewhere. I have explained a possible method in several different ways. Pay your money and take your choice.
Gene
AIM 5-3-7 revokes the 175 knot prop limit and now has 200, 230, and 265 above 14,000 or as specified on chart limits.
FAR 61.57(c) requires six instrument approaches (all the same or different), holding procedures, and interception and tracking of navaid courses for meeting required IFR currency.
Holding
An instructor must teach the direct, parallel, and teardrop holding entries even though the applicant can chose not to use them. Requirement is to remain within the airspace limits. The most recent FAA presentations seem to be leaning toward a more liberal selection of procedure.
Why the Hold?
--The hold is a way for ATC to adjust traffic so that it fits into the separation standards of the FARs.
--When the hold is not part of a charted procedure, ATC will try to give you a direct entry.
--Even when the hold is published, ATC may give a hold and direction that makes entry to the approach easier.
--The instrument PTS does not say the FAA method must be used.
--The CFII PTS specifies the FAA method as part of the test.
--A hold does not need to be exact, You just have to remain inside the airspace on the holding side of the fix.
--This can be done by doing the course reversal 90/270 by doing it as a 80/260 to allow for entry and recovery.
--The same procedure can be used to make the procedure turn.
--Always make your first 90 degreed turn to the holding side and your 260 will be in the holding direction.
The Way Holding Should Be
The shape of the holding pattern is as with a race track, rounded ends the give width and straight sides that give the pattern length. The holding direction is always the length from the fix. The right or left turn from the fix determines the width side of the pattern.
Draw the holding pattern on the fat of the thumb with the palm up on both hands. Mark the fix near the upper outside corner. The diagonal line follows the line of thumb through the fix and across the palm. The inbound course line is extended through the forefinger.
Any entry from below the thumb to the far side of the wrist is a direct entry. Any entry from the angle formed by the thumb and forefinger is a teardrop. Any entry coming across the fingers (fingers are parallel) or the palm will be a parallel entry. For Right pattern draw line down from the right For left pattern draw line down from the left.
Reference outbound course:
Small pie is teardrop
Middle piece is parallel
Big piece is direct
Sayings
--Climbing outbound on a procedures inbound radial is a sure way of meeting someone.
--Prepare your departure and arrival strategies ahead of time.
--Desire to be good is required to be good.
--An accident occurs when you have exhausted your box of options.
--Getting away with something stupid is a learning experience, not an invitation to try again.
On Holding
Under the revised FARs you are now required to log holds every 6 months for IfR currency. You are expected to use a procedure that will keep you within the protected airspace of the holding pattern. The entry guaranteed to keep you in the airspace is the course reversal. Both the parallel and teardrop entries can be substituted by the course reversal.
First you slow down. Entering holding patterns with excess speed increases the probability that you will fly out of protected airspace. the examiner will not accept reduction of speed sooner than three minutes before reaching the fix. You can get ATC approval if you wish to slow up sooner, however.
You much remember second to just turn to the outbound heading over the fix, perform the course reversal to the left for right standards holding patterns and to the right for non-standard left patterns. Draw it out, if you must. Go for tripling the wind correction angle while outbound but maintain your standard rate bank angles. Ask for two, three minute legs to give you more time to study your plates.
For the Practical Test Standards (PTS) you will need to know but not use the FAA recommended entries. An applicant who uses other than the recommended procedure must remain within the holding pattern protected airspace. Reference: AFS-600 Designee Update Vol 6, No. 2. April 1994. After you have your instrument rating it doesn't make any difference how you do a hold after you get your instrument rating, as long as you remain in protected airspace. The FAA is de-emphasizing the 70/110 method of determining holding pattern entries.
Aircraft holding patterns are a way of parking or delaying an aircraft along a route much as a railroad might use a railway siding. It may be used as a descent maneuver which avoids terrain or as an altitude stacking procedure to align aircraft as might be required in non-radar IFR situations. Holding is done for the convenience of ATC. Do not let their convenience jeopardize the FAR mandated fuel requirements. Be prepared to give minimum fuel advisories or to declare an emergency. Holding patters are used for traffic separation en route, for sequencing at terminals and as part of the approach procedure. The hold provides protected airspace. You may use a non-standard entry if it keeps you within protected airspace. Examiners may question you about the standard procedures if you choose to
fly a non-standard pattern.
Flight instructors are requires to teach the recommended holding pattern entries defined in the Instrument Flying Handbook and the AIM. This is so even though other entry procedures may enable the aircraft to enter the holding pattern and remain in protected airspace.
You are more likely to get vectors than a hold. If a delay becomes part of the approach, slow down. Advise ATC to he can see that you are helping the process. Organize your radios and frequencies. If a hold is called for you will do right turns unless left turns are directed or published. Get the EFC time. If you have trouble with Zulu time get it confirmed in local time. You are free to make your arrival to the hold in any manner. but first you must fly to the fix.
Standard procedures say when specific actions are required, not how they are to be made. This is the difference between procedure and technique. The way you do things when flying the airplane will give you habit patterns that will protect us when overload situations occur. Habits do not replace checklists, they do get you moving in the proper direction and flow.
There are eight possible holds at any fix. Four of them are direct entries and four require that you reverse direction. The holding instruction always gives you the initial outbound course. Once established you just fly the times and pattern
Holding is rarely done and when required is usually a direct entry. Holding on the ground is replacing in-flight holding. Expect Further Clearance times are indefinite when a hold is required. Be prepared to evaluate fuel situation whenever given a hold. An hour's fuel is a minimum reserve when holding. The most critical requirement is that you know your margins and options.
G.A. aircraft have many options in lieu of a hold. The FAA system for holding should be discarded once you are IFR rated. Historically holds were either teardrop or direct. For me, they still are. New wind drift correction on the outbound are now predicated at times-3 of the inbound. I still prefer the times-2 correction. Regardless of the holding instructions, make sure you clearly understand what to do next and what to do after that.
Course Reversal Entries
The direct entry is most common and easy, at the fix turn to the outbound heading for one minute and fly inbound to the fix. If you can fly directly through the fix on the outbound heading with less than a 30-degree turn (teardrop) you fly for one minute and execute a course reversal initiated by a 90-degree opposite to the pattern direction and a 270-degree inbound (Course reversal). This turns you around and inbound to the fix and holding pattern.
If you must turn 90-degrees on arriving at the fix for the outbound heading, you will either make a direct entry in right turns to the right or left turns to the right (parallel) This will require you to fly one minute before initiating a course reversal from a right 90-degree turn and a left 270 back to the inbound intercept to the fix (course reversal). If your entry requires a left turn it will be either a direct entry to left turns or a left 90 outbound for one minute and then another left 90 followed by a right 270 inbound to the fix and right turns in the pattern(course reversal).
The above procedure is now allowed by FAR and is simplistic in that all procedures the require a reversal of direction are preceded by two opposite direction 90° turns followed by a pattern direction 270 back to the fix. The outbound straight leg seems to be an option predicated on the wind.
Made a different course reversal 8-17-01 that worked in a specific situation. We were told to hold as published even though we had requested otherwise. The hold direction would require us to get turned around in order to proceed home. When we were ready to proceed we were instructed to intercept the assigned airway.
I did this by proceeding to the fix and continuing in the right turn for 270 degrees and then in a left 90-degree turn. It worked perfectly. Don't know if I have ever read about as a procedure before.
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