Dan Luke wrote:
Yesterday, for the first time since I got the instrument rating 5 years
ago, I had to hold for real.

It was a reposition flight from Mobile Downtown to Pensacola to pick up
an Angel Flight. When I checked the weather at home at 6am, fog was
reported everywhere on the central Gulf Coast - the nearest legal
alternate I found was Birmingham. Mobile was below minimums, but PNS
was just at minimums and forecast to improve slightly. When I took off,
BFM was still below minimums for the ILS, and when I checked the PNS
ATIS it was 1/4, indefinite ceiling 100.

The PNS approach controller reported the RVR as 100 with that "are you
sure you want to do this?" tone (don't you just hate to hear that tone
from a controller?), so I told him I'd try one ILS, then go hold a while
if I missed. Sure enough, at DH there was no sign of any lights, so off
to the Saufley VOR I went to wait.

Holding is boring. After a couple of turns to get it nailed, ones
attention tends to wander. It becomes a real effort to remember to
restart the clock outbound each time. I must admit I missed the
outbound flag drop a couple of times in the first 30 minutes and had to
check the GPS to know when to turn back inbound.
/snip/

Dan,

Congrats on a successful "hard" IFR flight!
Here's a tip from the real world of holding: Don't busy yourself with
the student excercise of timing every turn. You yourself noticed that
the GPS provided accurate turn indications, and this is how it's done,
after the first few tracks are timed to establish the local conditions.
Or, even better, just ask the controller for legs of a certain
distance (5 miles, or 10), and use the DME or GPS to fly the legs. Much
less busy work!

P.S. Did you really mean RVR's of 100 & 400??? Or maybe 1000 & 4000...

Happy Flying!
Scott Skylane