I obtained my cfii about a year ago last September. It seems that during
every every flight I find something new and different from my past
training and experience. My tale today concerns practing holds in
controlled airspace.

We filed for local hold/approach practice in the CAK area (class c). We
had just completed intercept and hold over the vor and were cleared direct
to the ndb. Our clearance was delayed due to traffic increases and we did
not hear back from atc until we were about two miles from the fix
(constant atc chatter). The clearance stated "I have continuous traffic
west of the ndb, hold east".

Our intercept was approximately 270 degrees so I sketched out hold east of
the ndb on the 090 bearing, right turns, one minute legs, altitude from
out previous clearance. Called atc with this clearance and entered the
hold. During the second circuit the controller called back to find out
what we would like to do next. On to the gps full approach.....

After landing I pulled out the "Instrument Proedures Handbook"
(FAA-H-8261-1) and found "... ATC may request that you hold at any
designated reporting point in a standard holding pattern at the MEA or the
MRA....". Also found "Unplanned holding at en enroute fixes may be
expected on airway or route radials, bearings, or courses". "If holding
pattern is not charted at the fix, hold on the inbound course using right
turns".

This is an excellent reference to use in addition to the FAR/AIM that is
often quoted. I hope that this is helpful to the original poster, the
thread seems to have wandered a bit.
Tom