Holding Pattern Entries

"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. Once you visualize where you are and
where
the hold is, figuring the entry should be essentially 'automatic.' This
is why
I've never been a fan of any of the various 'memorization' methods such as
the
thumb, dividing the DG into P-T-D, etc. If you can see what it looks
like, you
just fly the entry without further thought. Frankly it sounds to me like
your
initial instructor might have made this process painful enough for you
that you
just wrote it off early. I nearly did the same myself.

Ha! I could feel you out there steaming!

If you draw a few entries via the method I posted, you'll see that it
produces practical P-T-D entries automatically.

That's why the concept of "the official entries" is a bad idea.

The concept is good (and it's not going away.) The execution (by pilots)
is
often bad. It leads to a frustration which sets in and can be hard to
combat.
I was once more aligned with your thinking, but over time and with
experience
I've come to realize that they're actually a very elegant and simple tool
waiting to be discovered.

Any method that supports an industry of gizmos to figure it out isn't simple
and elegant.

That has not been my experience in my airplane. As you pointed out, the
whole secret to holding is situational awareness. If I'm doing a
one-shot
course reversal, I will adjust the procedure accordingly to give myself
the
time to intercept properly.

Which procedure will you use and how will you select it?

The one I posted - it's the one I use every time. By "adjust the procedure"
I mean the time I fly on the outbound leg, which may mean adding 30 seconds
to it to ensure adequate time to intercept the FAC. I would do the same
thing if I had flown a "book" entry.

Why are you willing to do that on course reversals and not hold entries?

I'll do it on any procedure I fly. Situational awareness, remember?

Shame on you if you do - that's why a racetrack is depicted; you're
allowed
to go all the way around if you need to.

That's a poor choice and only an option that should be taken if your
flying was
sufficiently sloppy to require it.

Not necessarily. Why do you think holds are depicted for some course
reversals? Why not a PT every time?

The guy waiting to fly the approach behind
you now has to wait. Why - simply because you didn't want to do a little
applied thinking?

If I have to make a full circuit, it won't be because I didn't fly a perfect
teardrop entry. It will be because there is something about the approach
that requires it. I've never had to do this, BTW.(Really, the orthodox
teardrop is the only one that's any different from my method, and it's not
much different.)

And as for applied thinking, may I respectfully suggest that you might do
little more of it on this subject. Draw a series of entries with the
orthodox method and then overlay them with drawings of the method I suggest.
I think you'll see there's not enough difference to matter.
--
Dan
C172RG at BFM