Holding Patterns

pwa

pwa

Well-Known Member
What are some your teaching methods on holding procedures? Are there any online training aids you use for the student?
 
I use a mathematical procedure based on intercept heading and where you are holding. It is a little hard to explain to a student at first, but once they get used to it there are some benefits. There is no need to draw holding patterns anymore, which helps free up time to do other stuff.

That being said, I have seen many different methods to do it. All of them will work, given enough practice.
 
I've noticed that the hardest part of deciding how to hold is actually visualizing the hold.

I'll have my students put their finger on the Heading Indicator and literally draw the hold. The center of the instrument is the holding fix and they draw with finger out towards the outbound heading. Once they can see it the entry is a snap to figure out. After a few times they don't need to use the finger on the dial method.
 
Get yourself a roll of masking tape...

Make a big ol' 10 foot holding pattern on the carpet of the classroom. There is NO better way for a student to visualize a holding pattern. In fact, as you give them various hypothetical inbound courses, winds, etc. they soon enter the holds in the correct manner, intuitively, without having to worry about the various rules of thumb with entries.

They can walk around and around, exit, fly to another fix (a dixie cup) and then back to a masking tape fix with a new inbound course, direction of turn, etc. Heck, give them an EFC of fifteen minutes later and hit the soda machine as they buzz around their pattern!
 
Look at the DG or HSI and visulize the radial to hold on, and the center of the DG is the fix. The entry is right there in front of you. Thats all you need. If you have a GPS, put it in OBS mode, and it'll show you the raidal, and you can make the entry off of that.
 
In a stem airplane, nothing beats making your own map.

Get some cocktail napkins or little paper squares, draw a fix on there (I personally always used a VOR, but that's me), draw the NSEW lines to draw quadrants.

Then when a hold is assigned, draw the hold, plane flying to the fix, and then as you cross the fix, which entry to use.

I like pictures, computer generated, or BiC generated.
 
I like to keep it simple. Fly through the holding fix and then turn outbound toward the protected side.
 
On the dg with the heading bug, bug your outbound course of the hold. Then if its a right turn holding pattern use your right hand for left use your left and put your middle index and thumb up to the dg. When you are heading towards the fix, if the heading bug is closest to your middle finger it is a tear drop entry, index is parallel, and thumb is a direct entry. If its in between use the entry with the least amount of turns. works everytime
 
I have my students draw the hold on their kneeboards including our current position. Always thought this helped with situational awareness.
 
If you have an RMI or HSI, you can use the finger method using the right hand for standard right holds, or left hand for non-standard. Thumb, pointer and middle fingers spread out and laid on the face of the HSI with pointer finger pointing inbound on the holding radial......sector between the thumb and pointer is a parallel, sector between middle and pointer is TD, and then anything outside of it (like the back of your hand) is a direct. It is a rough estimate, so you can't really gnat's a** it, but it will get you in the ballpark quickly if you have no idea.

BTW I'm not a CFI, just hadn't heard anyone mention this technique and it has helped me in a pinch when time is of the essence.

EDIT: nevermind, VTFlyer already had this one covered. So +1 to him!
 
ftyflyboy said:
I have my students draw the hold on their kneeboards including our current position. Always thought this helped with situational awareness.
Click to expand...

I used to do this, but when you have a lot of other crap on your kneeboard and not a whole lot of time to think and draw, it can be a little more challenging. Still does help with visualization early on, at least it did for me.
 
///AMG said:
If you have an RMI or HSI, you can use the finger method using the right hand for standard right holds, or left hand for non-standard. Thumb, pointer and middle fingers spread out and laid on the face of the HSI with pointer finger pointing inbound on the holding radial......sector between the thumb and pointer is a parallel, sector between middle and pointer is TD, and then anything outside of it (like the back of your hand) is a direct. It is a rough estimate, so you can't really gnat's a** it, but it will get you in the ballpark quickly if you have no idea.

BTW I'm not a CFI, just hadn't heard anyone mention this technique and it has helped me in a pinch when time is of the essence.

EDIT: nevermind, VTFlyer already had this one covered. So +1 to him!
Click to expand...

I think this can be a very easy to visualize it and then one can just go with common sense on the entry method. I know people who refuse to do parallel entries , I'm not exactly sure why but I suppose the entry methods are just suggestions anyway --not that thats going to fly on a check ride.

One thing that I do know is that my first instructor made me think that determining the corret holding entry was much , much harder than it actually was and this really made it take much longer for me to learn and feel confident about holding patterns. When an instructor makes something sound very challenging then a student is bound to fall behind and overthink making it a self fulfilling prophecy. I know plenty of my fellow students who have tried to explain holding entries until they turned blue only to fall back to simple method like the ones explained here. It's one of those things that I feel should be explained as if it is simple and a student will get it right in the sim or the plane. We spent about two hours on the ground talking about entries and it only confused me to the point where I thought I would never get it
 
Probably doesn't fly with a check airman, but I've had plenty of instructors (more on the mil side than civilian) who really don't care about entry method as long as you stay on the protected (holding) side during entry. Do what makes sense given your heading and the holding fix IMHO
 
3 steps:

1) Turn to the outbound heading.
2) Fly one minute.
3) Turn to the inbound heading.

All rote. No math. No (real) thinking, just follow the steps.

1) The outbound heading is the holding radial: "Hold on the 123 radial."
After crossing the fix, turn to heading 123.

2) While flying this heading for one minute, set the OBS on 123 and the CDI will swing towards the direction you should turn at the end of the minute.

3) Turn in the direction of the CDI to the inbound (reciprocal) heading (track) as well as re-setting the OBS to the inbound course.

This works well as a simple easy to remember procedure for getting set up on the inbound course. It works well to begin training holding practice, and as the student gains control of the aircraft and situational awareness, the 'fine-tuning' of teardrops and such can be incorporated to enhance 'efficiency', but this drill gets the job done within the allowed airspace, and it also works in those cases when the controller hurriedly issues a hold as you cross the vor expecting further on-route or approach clearance.
 
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