Dear friends followers welcome back to my channel and to this a three part series about what is a holding pattern how to
Enter holding and how to remain within the holding today
I'll be giving you a basic understanding of holding patterns
And what they're good for and what this vortex machine has to do with it, so let's get started
I'm sure many of you have experiences before you're on a flight heading home. Let's say to London Heathrow for example
You're in descent you fasten your seatbelts
and then the captain announces this "we are nice and early at the moment so even with a
little bit of Holding we should still have you on stand hopefully 10-15 minutes ahead of schedule" So picture this:
1,300 airplanes approach and take off at Europe's busiest airport
Every day this means every 66 seconds a plane takes off and lands at Heathrow Airport
so imagine if there were to be a sudden snowfall and one runway would be temporarily closed due to snow removal procedures a
Traffic jam in the sky above London becomes inevitable the immediate action by the air traffic controllers would be to advise all inbound
Airplanes to reduce their speed to avoid potential traffic cues in the air but snow removal can take up to 20 minutes
Which equals 18 planes which are now stacking up in the sky?
Waiting to get their clearence to proceed to their assigned runway
And this waiting period in mid air is called a holding a holding is defined as a necessary
procedure technique
Which is used to sure a safe and orderly flow of traffic
into an out of busy terminal space and
All Holdings are set up in the same fashion from above they look like a big oval form in a racetrack shape which is
Designed to maintain the aircraft within a specified space and specified time
They can either be published on terminal plates such as the approach and landing charts on an airway chart and in some cases
unpublished and
specified by the ATC controller
a typical holding pattern is based on the holding fix the fix can be any kind of navigational aid which is a
stationary point such as a VOR an NDB an airway intersection or a GPS Waypoint and
Starting at the holding fix the racetrack is made out of four components the fixed end with a hundred and eighty degree turn
The outbound leg the outbound end
determining inbound length to the holding fix
Determining in a sense you are flying towards the navigational aid
Determining your position relative to the fix and holding and a standard holding is flown with right turns
unless otherwise specified by the air traffic controller
also
This side is the holding side and the other one is the non holding side and any entry procedure
Etc will always keep you within the protected holding area
So let's look at this star of London Heathrow right here now
Let's say we're on a standard arrival
Biggin Hill one Foxtrot and
ATC advises you about the current snow removal situation on runway two-seven left now he therefore
wants you to enter the published holding over
Biggin Hill VOR so you'll check your chart for the given instructions now. Let's say for a moment
There's no wind and you're at flight level 100 proceding inbound Bravo, India Golf who you are as we are below
14,000 feet the regulations state that the inbound legs shall be one minute long with a holding speed of
230 knots now reading off the chart the inbound course is 3 0 3 and the reciprocal outbound calls so a
hundred and eighty degrees in the other direction is
One two three as we have no wind both inbound and outbound leg are one minute long but more about that in video
Three now just to get an idea how big a holding is in size we quickly do the calculations now
230 knots is our speed
divided by
60 minutes
equals
3.8. And naca miles
So that's how long your legs are within the holding so
3.8
Nautical miles also equals the length of the thick send cuz it's a hundred and eighty degrees
We're turning divided by three degrees per second
Which is the standard turning rate at 25 degrees of Bank ankle?
equals
60 seconds so to determine the diameter of that turn we need to use this formula right here now radius R
Equals the circumference now only have half of the circum Fearne's so that times two
Divided by two times pi gives a radius of one point two one nautical miles
Times two gives us the diameter of two point four two nautical miles now. You don't necessarily
Turns in midair, but it's nice to know how much space you're actually using up in the holding once
You're in the holding a these-- is most likely going to give you a clearance to descend every now
And then as more planes are being stacked above you at a minimum vertical separation of a thousand feet
Comparable to one of these vortex coin machines the coins all circle in the same direction at a safe distance
to each other
And then the lowest one falls out and new ones are added from the top so at a certain point
ATC will then request you to leave the holding and
Navigate you towards the final approach to be fair. There are few more things
You need to know as a flight student or flight similar in terms of holding entries and how to maintain within the Holling
Because if you're not flying a fancy Airbus or Boeing where you can select the holding in the FM's GS and press hold
Enter enter, and then the autopilot does it all by itself. No you need to do all the calculations with a pen and paper
therefore watch the second video about the quickest way to
established the holding entry in under 10 seconds and in the third video about how to apply wind correction angles and
Maintain within the holding and here are a few more further
informations and often ask questions in your HP L theory exam or junior simulator screenings
Just press pause and read through that's it for today. Thank you very much for your time
I hope you enjoyed this video about the holdings and don't forget a good pilot is always learning see you next week. All the best
your Captain Joe