Doug Easton wrote:
I'm confused I guess. Doesn't the holding pattern outline as drawn represent
the desired track for the aircraft to fly over the ground? Clearly the
heading of the aircraft will change to compensate for a crosswind but why
does the desired track change?

Certainly, you can track any straight line on the ground simply by
appling the correct wind correction angle. But that only covers the
inbound and outbound legs.

If you want to fly a circular arc over the ground (i.e. the inbound
and outbound turns) with any wind, you need to be continuously
changing the rate of turn, and thus the bank angle, as you progress
through the turn. If you want to fly constant bank, standard-rate
turns (as we were all taught to do), it is IMPOSSIBLE to fly an exact
racetrack pattern in anything other than calm air.

The general rule of thumb is to double (or triple, depending on the
authority you read) the inbound WCA on the outbound leg. You end up
flying some blob-shaped track instead of a nice neat racetrack, but at
least you stay on the protected side of the inbound course.