"Cecil E. Chapman" wrote in message
. com...
I don't know that I can completely agree with you, I've heard the issue
about hold practice, from grey haired CFI's and regular G.A. pilots,,,,
they
all seem to say the same thing about holds.

I know what you are saying, but realistically, how many times have have
you
been asked to hold at a towered airport because traffic load was so
prohibitive. I've only been flying since 2000, but in my personal flying
I've only ever been asked to hold because of traffic, once!,,, EVER...

Yep,,, missed approach holds,,, okay maybe there... but I don't think
most
of us are going to be flying anywhere near to minimums and will be able to
make the runway just fine on the first try, since most of us are REALLY
REALLY good :-. Okay,,, kind of kidding,,,, I know that we are supposed
to handle missed approaches as if they are the norm and a landing on the
first try as unexpected.... yada yada yada....

I have had scandalously few hours in the system since I passed my checkride,
and I've had to hold on approach twice. Once approaching Arlington when the
controller was trying to ensure that the predecessor, who had actually -
gasp - landed, had closed. And once at Paine when the controller had, at a
guess, been a little optimistic about sequencing.

Surely the first problem illustrates that it's going to be more likely to
happen at an untowered field because by then you're on advisories and off
radar? It doesn't have to be a busy hub. Remember to check if there's a
specific frequency for closing the plan at an untowered field (e.g. one
local airport with ILS and scheduled airline traffic uses the CD frequency,
but that's not clearly stated on the plate).

-- David Brooks