It's a steaming hot holiday weekend, and the airport is full of people wanting to fly. I arrived at 9am to try and beat some of the heat. After a successful preflight inspection, I go inside to meet my instructor, Mark. We spent about a half hour having a discussion on holding patterns and how to enter them. Each instructor that I've talked to teaches them slightly different, and they all have their personal tips. Another instructor, Aaron was nearby listening to our conversation and spoke up with a suggestion. He said a direct entry is the easiest to do and recognize, but people often have trouble figuring out the teardrop and parallel entries. He recommends that when drawing the hold on paper, to draw a line with a arrow on the side that you are supposed to hold, where the arrow points to the holding fix (point). Then if it's a standard pattern, draw an oval on the right, connecting it to the line and fix. If it's non-standard, then draw the oval to the left. Next, he said that if you're airplane is flying towards the inside of the hold, then enter a teardrop entry, and if the plane is flying towards the outside of the hold, then perform a parallel entry. Thinking of it this way helps keep the pilot from plotting out the course based on mathematical calculations and drawing specific angles.
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| My drawing of holding pattern entries |
We jump in the plane, run through the checklist and take off northbound. Mark tells me to fly to the FASHE intersection and hold with a specific set of instructions. With my new set of tips, I quickly and correctly figure out how to enter the pattern. After a couple of times around the pattern Mark asks me to track to the STL VOR station and hold north.
I get on course then draw out the pattern on a piece of paper. Looks like this one will be with a direct entry. I did pretty good with the exception of getting a little mixed up on the inbound course. Mark is satisfied so we fly back to the airport and land on runway 27 (two-seven).
After a debriefing, Mark says that we'll probably do one more lesson before he sends me off for the Stage II Check. Yay!
Flight Log to Date:
Hours flown: 120.1
I get on course then draw out the pattern on a piece of paper. Looks like this one will be with a direct entry. I did pretty good with the exception of getting a little mixed up on the inbound course. Mark is satisfied so we fly back to the airport and land on runway 27 (two-seven).
After a debriefing, Mark says that we'll probably do one more lesson before he sends me off for the Stage II Check. Yay!
Flight Log to Date:
Hours flown: 120.1
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