Ryan Ferguson wrote
If one's SA is what it should be, ciphering out which of the three standard
entries to use becomes a waste of time and therefore counter to safe
practice.

Shouldn't require any ciphering out...
If you can see what it looks like, you
just fly the entry without further thought.

You know, that was going to be my response - and then I realized we're
not all looking at it the same way. The AIM divides the compass into
three sectors - 180 degrees for direct, 110 for parallel, and 70 for
teardrop. Suppose you're close to one of the sector division lines?
Now you're going to be doing mental math or some other timewasting
procedure to figure out if you should be doing a parallel or teardrop
entry.

My solution is don't do that. Pick the one that looks right. So
you're doing a teardrop when you're really in the parallel sector by
10 whole degrees. SO WHAT? It's still going to work just fine. If
you've correctly visualized the entry, being off a few degrees is
irrelevant.

I would be happier if the official depiction, instead of using sector
lines, had grey sectors maybe 30 degrees wide (probably centered on
the present dividing lines) for those regions where either of the
entries is appropriate. After all, that's realistically how we do it.

Michael