peter-h
Line Up and Wait
There seems to be a large number of devices which tell you how to enter a holding pattern, but that operation is usually obvious anyway
What I have not found is a device, or a program, which takes in the current wind vector, your TAS, the bearing of the inbound track (the track to the holding fix) of the hold, and it works out the optimal inbound and outbound headings and the outbound timing.
It must be something that many people have worked out in the past, and modern airliners can fly holding patterns automatically so they must have solved it.
But the only thing I found on google was some patent on a device which does it...
The calculation is fairly simple but does involve nontrivial trigonometry because you need to take proper account of the wind effect on the turns. Just adding 3x the drift on the outbound leg works only for small values of wind/TAS.
It would be useful to have this on say an Ipad, because once airborne it is easy enough to do the "current wind" calculation knowing your heading, TAS, GS, and track.
Here in the UK, in IR training, we have to fly NDB holds and they are much harder than the VOR holds I was doing in the FAA IR. With an NDB hold, you have very poor lateral track guidance on the track inbound to the fix.
What I have not found is a device, or a program, which takes in the current wind vector, your TAS, the bearing of the inbound track (the track to the holding fix) of the hold, and it works out the optimal inbound and outbound headings and the outbound timing.
It must be something that many people have worked out in the past, and modern airliners can fly holding patterns automatically so they must have solved it.
But the only thing I found on google was some patent on a device which does it...
The calculation is fairly simple but does involve nontrivial trigonometry because you need to take proper account of the wind effect on the turns. Just adding 3x the drift on the outbound leg works only for small values of wind/TAS.
It would be useful to have this on say an Ipad, because once airborne it is easy enough to do the "current wind" calculation knowing your heading, TAS, GS, and track.
Here in the UK, in IR training, we have to fly NDB holds and they are much harder than the VOR holds I was doing in the FAA IR. With an NDB hold, you have very poor lateral track guidance on the track inbound to the fix.
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