Holding pattern reporting

"Yossarian" wrote in message
. 97.142...
At what point do you report holding to ATC? Upon reaching the holding
fix,
or when you are established in the hold and again crossing the fix? For
example, your direction of flight makes a parallel entry appropriate. You
cross the fix and turn outbound. Should you report then or wait till you
have turned and crossed the fix again? My instructor and I disagree on
this.

Never really thought about it, but when I think back to my IMC rating
training, the rule of thumb seemed to be to report as soon as we were
established in the holding pattern and confident of our position. This
generally meant a "beacon outbound" call the first time we crossed the
beacon whilst in the hold (i.e. not when we were passing over the beacon to
fly, say, a teardrop entry).

D.