How to fly a holding pattern
A holding pattern is a racetrack shaped circuit at a radio beacon. You fly it to wait, for a delay, for weather, or for your approach slot. This guide covers the pattern itself, the three ICAO entries (direct, offset and parallel, where the offset entry is usually called the teardrop entry in the United States), the thumb method for picking an entry in the cockpit, and how wind changes your drift and your timing.
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WHAT IS A HOLDING?
A holding is a racetrack shaped circuit at a radio beacon. You use it to wait: for a delay, for weather, or for your approach slot.
One lap works like this: fly the inbound leg to the station, make a standard 180 degree turn, fly one minute outbound, then another 180 degree turn back onto the inbound. In a standard pattern all turns are to the right. In a nonstandard pattern they are to the left.
THE THREE ENTRIES
You rarely arrive perfectly lined up, so ICAO defines three ways to join the pattern. Which one you fly depends on the direction you arrive from.
The sky around the fix is split into three sectors by a 70 degree line: direct (fly over the fix and turn straight into the pattern), offset (fly outbound at 30 degrees into the pattern, then turn back), and parallel (fly outbound parallel to the inbound track, then turn back through it).
THE THUMB METHOD
Here is the trick that saves you all the math while you fly toward the station. First work out the outbound heading: the inbound course from your clearance plus 180.
Right turns: place your right thumb on the compass rose about 20 degrees above the 90 degree point, so it lies at roughly the 2 o'clock position. Now find the outbound heading on the rose:
- Between the nose and your thumb: offset entry.
- On the other side of the nose: parallel entry.
- Anywhere below your thumb: direct entry.
Left turns mirror everything: use your left thumb at the 10 o'clock position.
FLYING THE ENTRIES
Direct: cross the fix, then turn straight onto the outbound leg. This is the easy one, more than half of all arrivals are direct.
Offset: cross the fix, turn to a heading 30 degrees away from the outbound track on the holding side, fly one minute, then make a standard turn to intercept the inbound course back to the fix.
Parallel: cross the fix, turn to the outbound heading and fly parallel to the inbound track on the outside of the pattern for one minute. Then turn through the inbound track (into the protected side), intercept it, and return to the fix.
After the entry you are established. Keep flying neat laps.
TIMING AND WIND
Start the timer when you roll out on the outbound leg (or abeam the fix, if you can tell). Fly one minute, then turn back and check the inbound leg time: it should also be about one minute.
Here is our suggestion for the wind corrections. It is only a rule of thumb, not a law, so adjust it to what works for you:
- Drift: take the crosswind component in knots and divide it by two. That is your wind correction angle in degrees on the inbound leg (WCA = crosswind / 2). On the outbound leg use three times that angle to the opposite side (WCA x 3). Three, because you drift for three minutes of every lap: the turn out, the outbound leg and the turn back. Only the outbound leg has any correction on it, so that one minute has to pay for all three. The inbound leg is not counted, you are tracking it.
- Time: with a headwind on the outbound leg fly 1 second longer per knot. With a tailwind on the outbound leg fly 1 second less for every 2 knots.
One altitude rule to know: the one minute outbound leg applies up to 14,000 ft. Above FL140 the outbound leg is 1.5 minutes.
Use SHOW SOLUTION on the map to compare your flown track with the ideal racetrack. Then hide it and fly the next lap on instruments alone.