All posts tagged Holding Patterns

Holding Patterns Revisited – Holding South or North of a Fix

By | August 3, 2011 | Flight Training | 1 Comment
holding-pattern-entries

Chris, an AviationChatter reader asked a great question about holding patterns:

I understand the hold entry, but what is killing me is trying to determine the “mental picture” of the actual racetrack when ATC says “Hold south on the 180 radial.” My heading is 155º in this example.

What does ATC saying “south” have to do with anything?

Well Chris, the compass direction “south” doesn’t have much to do with your holding pattern at all. It’s just extra language to clarify the hold and help you, the pilot, visualize the proper holding pattern.

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Bugout Times – When to Divert to the Alternate Airport

By | June 5, 2011 | Flying Tips | 2 Comments
IFR Charts

Without taking fuel burn into consideration, you can wind up in a situation where you no longer have enough fuel to fly to the alternate – and perhaps even the destination.As an instrument rated pilot, you know all about flying holding patterns and computing entries. But you can’t fly around in a holding pattern all day, sooner or later you’ll have to decide when to bug out and go to the alternate. It’s better to make this decision sooner than later, here’s how.

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Holding Pattern Entries Made Easy!

By | May 19, 2009 | Flight Training | 22 Comments
holdpattern

I’m sure all of you IFR types know the drill. ATC assigns you a holding pattern and it is up to you to enter that hold in one of three ways: parallel, direct, or teardrop. Which entry do you choose? Well it all depends upon your intercept angle with the holding pattern… or something like that. Truth be told, I have no idea! But wait, how can you fly a holding pattern if you can’t do the mental math to compute your entry? It’s quite simple really: I do it visually. Read more…