Whether you're a seasoned instrument pilot or you're just getting started, here's what you should know about holding... Show
Reasons For HoldingHolding patterns are assigned to aircraft by ATC for a variety of reasons. Holds are flown in protected airspace, away from obstacles, and may be published tracks off of individual fixes or "random" holding assigned by ATC off of a nearby NAVAID. Here are a few of the most common reasons you'll find yourself holding...
Holding InstructionsThe easiest of all holding instructions is a "hold as published" clearance, which is for charted holds that you'll find on your IFR charts. You can find charted holds on approach charts, STARs, or en-route charts. Your clearance will sound something like this: "Boldmethod 123 hold south of the Cedar Lake VOR as published. Expect further clearance at 12:30 Zulu." Note the light gray holding pattern next to the VOR on the chart below... "Random" holding is a little more tricky. This happens when ATC issues you a non-charted hold. To do this, they'll have to read off a full series of holding instructions. You'll want to write these down to start planning your hold, and your clearance will sound something like this: "Boldmethod 123 hold west of the East Texas VOR, 290 radial, 20 DME, left turns, 5-mile legs. Expect further clearance at 12:30 Zulu." Keep in mind, holding can be done almost anywhere en-route. Here's what the FAA has to say in Chapter 2 of the Instrument Procedures Handbook: "Unplanned holding at enroute fixes may be expected on airway or route radials, bearings, or courses. If the fix is a facility, unplanned holding could be on any radial or bearing and there may be holding limitations required if standard holding cannot be accomplished at the MEA or MRA." Protected AirspaceHolding is conducted in protected airspace that's determined by FAA TERPS Criteria. Holding patterns are established with a primary area (used for holding) and a secondary area (2NM wide perimeter around the primary area). TERPS uses a series of complex tables to determine how wide a holding area must be. These calculations are determined by distance from the fix to the NAVAID, slant range distance, altitude, nearby holds, and aircraft speed. In most cases, you won't know the exact dimensions of the protected airspace. But what is important to understand is that there's plenty of buffer room to ensure that wind correction, varying groundspeeds, etc. will not affect safety of flight, even at the max holding speeds.. As for height above nearby terrain, the FAA says that "for level holding, a minimum of 1,000 feet obstacle clearance is provided throughout the primary area. In the secondary area, 500 feet of obstacle clearance is provided at the inner edge, tapering to zero feet at the outer edge. Allowance for precipitous terrain is considered, and the altitudes selected for obstacle clearance may be rounded to the nearest 100 feet." The size of the holding pattern is directly proportional to aircraft speed. In order to limit the amount of airspace that must be protected by ATC, maximum holding speeds KIAS (Knots Indicated Airspeed) have been designated for specific altitude ranges. If a holding pattern has a nonstandard speed restriction, it is depicted by an icon with the limiting airspeed. There are three types of standard holding entries: direct, parallel, and teardrop. They're simple procedures to help you establish your aircraft in the hold. Check out our Boldmethod Live session below for a great explanation on all three holding entries.
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Become a better pilot. The original goals of human factors (HF) were to optimise human and system efficiency and effectiveness. As such, the term human factors, refers to the many issues whether personal, social, environment or organisational that affect how people perform tasks in their work and non-work environments. Within aviation, HF has been focused predominantly on error reduction, either through engineering in safety and efficiencies or through training and monitoring (checklists). The intention of this chapter is to highlight some of the HFs that may impact those operating a GNSS, explore situational awareness, managing errors and discuss the human-machine interface. Pilots and engineers may also wish to read the human factors resource kits produced by CASA. Don’t be led astrayMany of us have heard stories about people ending up in the wrong suburb, town or even country because they tried to follow directions from a GPS in their car or mobile phone mapping application.
Pilots have also had accidents to which their GPS units have contributed. Cockpit recordings indicate that a lack of familiarity with the GPS units’ functions, distraction and over-reliance were some of the error-producing influences on the pilots. These potential threats to performance from technology make clear the importance of understanding your strengths and shortcomings, and of the technology you are using. An awareness of the limitations in the design, controls, displays and software logic of GPS units can avoid potentially dangerous errors such as:
Influences on peopleInteractionA number of factors influence the way that people interact with technology associated with CMS/ATM, such as GPS receivers, ADS-B transponders and cockpit display of traffic information (CDTI) units. The ‘dirty dozen’ concept, originally designed in the 1990s to improve human performance in maintenance, refers to the most common factors which influence people to make mistakes. In the CNS/ATM context some of the ‘dirty dozen’ provide guidance on how to get the best of from the technology while avoiding the pitfalls. CommunicationMost human communication is obtained visually, with 55 per cent from body language, 38 per cent through tone and pitch and only seven per cent the actual words. People normally remember about 20 per cent of what they hear if all they have is sound, which is why aviation radio procedures require readback of essential information such as frequencies, turning instructions and radar codes. Listening to directions from your GPS tends to be less effective than a passenger giving you the same information, since the passenger provides cues such as tone of voice and possibly gestures. While technology can reduce pilot workload, the examples above show that interactive systems have limited means of communication with the human interface—so it’s not a matter of ‘set and forget’. For example, ADS-B surveillance reduces the need for air-ground voice communications for position reports, reducing some pilot and controller workloads. When out of range of an ADS-B ground station, ADS-B IN receiver capability provides the pilot with local airspace information and thus a real time air traffic picture. This additional information should significantly enhance a pilot’s situational awareness. However, the additional information being presented creates workload for the pilots because it has to be:
For example, instead of being instructed to change course or altitude by the ATC, the onus is on the pilots to come to a consensus. And there is an assumption the other aircraft in the vicinity are ADS-B OUT equipped and that the equipment is operating. ComplacencyJust as using cruise control in a car doesn’t mean that you can travel at a constant speed regardless of other traffic, so there is no such thing as a routine flight. Your GPS may have worked well last time—but what if there’s an in-flight power failure, or it’s a different model this time? As noted previously, ADS-B assists pilots through providing information, but what if there is more information than the system can provide? An over-reliance on the system to inform may lead to complacency with visual scans. Remember, if you only look for one thing, you may miss important signals because your perception is biased by your expectations and information filtering. Furthermore, the displays of many GPS units are quite small, with the potential for display reading errors. Warnings such as RAIM are often indicated by small symbols or lights and if the screen is being dimmed by bright light the washout can limit what is actually seen. A last comment on over-reliance is the old adage ‘use it or lose it’. Drivers in a simulator who follow satellite navigation instructions find it more difficult to work out where they have been than those who use maps. Instructed drivers also fail to notice that they have been led past the same point twice. Roger McKinlay, the former president of the Royal Institute of Navigation in the UK suggests that our natural sense of navigation diminishes over time if we constantly outsource the responsibility to machines. And skills need be practised. For example, flight planning and map-reading skills are likely to deteriorate for VFR pilots who routinely rely on the direct-to function on a GPS as their primary means of navigation. Current knowledgeIf dependency increases on ‘outsourced’ knowledge systems, than there is potential for any changes to the systems and procedures to be left to the device to update, rather than on the operator to keep current. The good practice of asking others, rather than assuming the automation is up-to-date, may lapse. To ensure correct procedures are followed, always use checklists and avoid working from memory. For IFR pilots familiar with ground-based navigation aids, there will be some significant differences in an RNAV environment. These include the display of distance to the next waypoint, cross-track error measured in distance rather than degrees, and absence of slant range. This means that some old rules of thumb and situational awareness techniques may no longer apply. Be absolutely clear about the minimum descent requirements for the approach segment you are in. A lack of equipment standardisation may cause problems when pilots move between aircraft. For example some CDTIs allow traffic on the ground to be filtered out while others don’t. An ADS-B OUT interface in the cockpit will not display traffic or terrain, but may let the pilot enter the FLTID. GNSS units have different modes of operation, including ‘go-to direct’, ‘nav’, ‘waypoint’, ‘alerts’ and ‘system status’, and the function inputs mean different things in different modes. Some equipment does not display the mode, which means pilots need to remember which one they are in. DistractionDistraction is anything which draws a person’s attention away from the task at hand. It’s also the main cause of forgetting things. There is a tendency, when returning to a task after being distracted, to think we are further ahead than we actually are. Concentrating on only one thing while flying can be dangerous, leading to loss of situational awareness and control. Using interactive equipment can capture your attention for longer than you think. For example, it’s easy to become fixated trying to find a function hidden deep in the menu structure of a GPS. Familiarise yourself with the technology and do as much preparation as possible, such as entering the waypoints for alternates on the ground to cut the in-flight workload. GNSS can distract pilots from other tasks, such as monitoring other instruments and scanning for traffic. It can also lull pilots into a false sense of security. TeamworkThis is particularly, but not only, applicable to multi-crew operations. For example, it’s important to make sure that the information which goes into the GPS and ADS-B units is checked and double-checked, both for accuracy and for common sense. Accidents have happened because crews faithfully input data which was incorrect or ambiguous. FatigueFatigue is a natural physiological reaction to prolonged physical and/or mental stress. After 17 hours of wakefulness, you are functioning as if you had an equivalent blood alcohol level of 0.05 per cent. After 24 hours the level increases to 0.1 per cent. The more fatigued you are, the lower your cognitive processing speed and memory capacity, which detract from your ability to concentrate and make you more easily distracted. An area near the front of the brain responsible for logical reasoning and complex thought seems particularly vulnerable to sleep deprivation. This may be why people typically have such a hard time recognising their own fatigue and level of impairment. We tend to underestimate our level of fatigue and overestimate our ability to cope with it. Don’t be pressured into flying if you are fatigued. StressStress can have many causes, and can result in a pilot being less attentive, or making a decision without considering all the information available. It can cause a narrowing of attention, or tunnel vision, making information-gathering (scanning) scattered and poorly organised. Acute stress from too much work (overload) can be bad for situational awareness. But so can too little stress, or underload. If a lot of information needs to be prioritised quickly, situational awareness will ultimately suffer. Real-time demands, such as dealing with an in-flight emergency, can cause acute stress to our senses, mental processing and body. Conversely, during periods of low workload such as in long-haul flying, reduced vigilance may affect your motivation to actively find out what is going on around you. Automation in the cockpit can leave a pilot with little to do, and the lack of stimulation can lead to complacency. Chronic stress is cumulative, and the result of life events such as family relations, finances, illness, bereavement or divorce can mean our threshold of reaction to demands and pressure at work is lowered. We may over-react inappropriately, too often and too easily. NormsNorms are unwritten rules or behaviors, dictated and followed by the majority of a group. They can be positive or negative, but most have not been designed to meet all circumstances. Don’t feel pressured into doing something a particular way just because ‘that’s the way it’s done around here’. The following extracts from reports of occurrences around the world show the potential for human error in the use of GNSS equipment is.
Situational awarenessThe complexity of aviation operations means that there is potential for even small errors to cause serious problems. A key to avoiding them is to understand the consequences of particular actions. Safe use of GPS in aviation requires:
Ten clues to loss of situational awarenessThese clues can warn of an error chain in progress—a series of events that may lead to an accident. Most accidents involving human error include at least four of these clues.
How to maintain and improve situational awarenessHere are some simple tips to help maintain an adequate level of situational awareness in your flying activities.
Cockpit ergonomicsMany aircraft have been fitted with GNSS receivers some years after the aircraft was designed and built. As a result, displays are not necessarily in the ideal location in the cockpit, although IFR installations require the displays to be in the pilot’s field of view. Reflected sunlight can cause problems with both screen displays and annunciator lights and pilots should ensure familiarity with the illumination of the particular receiver installation before night flight. Many GNSS receivers are coupled to the horizontal situation indicator (HSI) or the primary navigation display. Mode awareness is critical with these installations as different switching and logic arrangements are used to display data from GNSS, VOR, ILS and other sources. Pilots should also be aware of the attentional dominance of the HSI when navigating by a system not displayed on the HSI, and avoid this configuration where possible. Where does my coffee cup go? Donald Norman in The Design of Everyday Things (1988, revised 2013) ‘Even the comfort of the flight crew is ignored. Only recently have decent places to hold coffee cups emerged. In older planes, the flight engineer has a small desk for writing and for holding manuals, but the pilots don’t. In modern planes, there are still no places for the pilots to put their charts, their maps, or in some planes, their coffee cups. Where can the crew stretch their legs or do the equivalent of putting the feet up on the desk? And when it is mealtime, how does one eat without risking spilling food and liquids over the cockpit? The lighting and design of the panels seem like an afterthought, so much so that a standard item of equipment for a flight crew is a flashlight.’ Norman says the cramped, inconsiderate design of cockpits is a symptom of a more serious problem. ‘If comfort is ignored, think how badly mental functioning must be treated. ‘Why hasn’t this need been recognised? The need for mental, cognitive assistance should be recognised during the design of the cockpit. Why don’t we build in devices to help the crew? Instead, we force them to improvise, to tape notes here and there, or even to wedge pieces of paper at the desired locations, all to act as memory aids. The crew needs external information, knowledge in the world, to aid them in their tasks. Surely we can develop better aids than empty coffee cups?’ Norman’s proposed solution is user-centred design, meaning it puts the needs of the user before other considerations. Design should:
Data entry in GNSS unitsBoth manually entered and database-derived information should be checked for reasonableness with a confidence check in the following cases:
Many similar or identical waypoint names exist in a database and it is possible for pilots or software producers to load the wrong waypoint into a sequence inadvertently. Confidence checks should compare tracks and distances against charted information rather than simply scroll through a list of waypoints. Pilots should refer to their company operations manual and to CAO 20.18 for additional information regarding data entry. Airmanship tipsA lack of mode awareness is a common hazard in computerised flight systems. You must be able to recognise the correct mode of operation for each phase of flight, particularly during instrument approach.
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Why should pilots understand how to cancel entries made on a gps?
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