Steven P. McNicoll wrote:
"A Lieberman" wrote in message
...

If no delay is expected, then why be put in the hold in the first place?



It's a tool of nonradar separation, it's called a "paper stop". Let's say
two aircraft are estimated to cross at a fix eight minutes apart. Minimum
separation is ten minutes, so some action must be taken. The later aircraft
is issued a hold prior to the common fix. Since the first aircraft is
expected to pass the common fix before the second aircraft reaches the
holding fix no delay is expected and no EFC is issued.



If no EFC and radios go belly up while in IMC, when would you know to
leave
the hold?



Without an EFC I wouldn't enter the hold. It's a moot point anyway,
whatever caused my comm radios to go belly up will affect my nav radios the
same way and I won't be able to identify the holding fix.


This happened to me very early in my IFR experience (it's still early,
but this was very early. I got cleared to an intermediate fix, "expect
no delay." They did not assign a hold. I had never gotten anything like
this before (I had hardly gotten anything at all before) and I asked for
an expect further clearance time, and they didn't have one. Since I
hadn't run into this, I made them give me an EFC time, they finally did,
but it took a lot of work (apparently) and they were clearly not happy.

Seems like I was wrong. Should I simply have proceeded to the fix, and
if I lost radio contact prior to getting there, proceeded as filed
immediately?

Brad