Ad-hoc holds with ForeFlight

[AggieMike88]

A recently added feature to ForeFlight is the ability to create and plot ad-hoc holds. (See the current pilot’s guide starting at page 152.)

Has anyone had a chance to use it during a flight?

I’m curious as to what the PoA hive mind thinks about it.

What got me wandering in this direction was the question, “could I build a random hold and send that to the GNS530 via FlightStream and have the autopilot fly the hold?”

That was answered on page 154 as “No”.

But at least I now have something to aid in correctly visualizing the hold instructions.

 

[Salty]

I thought I posted on here my experiment when the feature first came out. As I recall I could send it to the garmin, but it comes across as a bunch of manual waypoints. I’ll try to find my post.

 

[Salty]

Found it. https://www.pilotsofamerica.com/com...-kicking-some-butt.132763/page-2#post-3104133

 

[David Megginson]

It's useful having ad-hoc holds in a panel-mounted GPS navigator that can drive an autopilot via GPSS, but I'm still struggling to see the value in tablet-based EFB.

Seems like just another case of marketing featuritis. I'm sure Garmin will scramble to add the same thing to Garmin Pilot now so that they keep up with each other in the feature matrix.

 

[AggieMike88]

It's useful having ad-hoc holds in a panel-mounted GPS navigator that can drive an autopilot via GPSS,.

I agree. The CNX80/G480 and the Chelton Autopilot we had in 55WB did a good job. Now that we have the GTN650Xi and GFC500, that combo makes ad hoc holds as simple as you please.

The airplane I fly for work has the 530/430 + KAP150 combo and does a good job for the older tech that it is.

I was given an hold instruction by ATC a week ago that upped my busy level for a bit while I complied manually. When I found the ForeFlight feature, I began wondering how that might help me in the future.

 

[David Megginson]

I was given an hold instruction by ATC a week ago that upped my busy level for a bit while I complied manually. When I found the ForeFlight feature, I began wondering how that might help me in the future.

That's a good point, and I guess it depends on your personality and flying style. In my case, if I'm already task-saturated, introducing something else into it (even just using a different function in a tablet app that's already open) would make things worse—my impulse is always to simplify to the bare minimum when there's too much going on. But perhaps for another pilot with different cognitive processes, it would helpful.

For example, let's say ATC gave me a complex instruction like "Hold north of the XXX VOR on the 015 radial at 5,000 ft, left turns, two-minute legs, expect further clearance at 2010 zulu." I'd take it one bit at a time:

• scribble down the key parts (in short form, like "H XXX N 015 LT 2min EFC 2010")
• acknowledge the instruction
• turn direct to XXX VOR
• start climbing or descending to 5,000 ft

Now I have at least a couple of minutes' breather to figure out the rest, e.g. what the hold's going to look like, how I'm going to enter, setting up my timer, etc. If I were feeling really frazzled, I could even draw a little picture on my kneeboard. Or if I'm letting my GTN 650 fly it, this is the time that I can enter the hold info into it, after I've already started flying direct to the waypoint and climbing/descending as needed.

 

[luvflyin]

A recently added feature to ForeFlight is the ability to create and plot ad-hoc holds. (See the current pilot’s guide starting at page 152.)

Has anyone had a chance to use it during a flight?

I’m curious as to what the PoA hive mind thinks about it.

What got me wandering in this direction was the question, “could I build a random hold and send that to the GNS530 via FlightStream and have the autopilot fly the hold?”

That was answered on page 154 as “No”.

But at least I now have something to aid in correctly visualizing the hold instructions.

Haven’t done it in flight, just heard about from you. I played with it on FF. If your holding on the course you arrive at the fix on, one minute legs, right turns, you can get it done with a couple taps. Any changes to that and it gets a little busier. It sure does solve the ol’ ‘but what entry do I use’ mystery. Guess it boils down to, are the extra tasks required to do it worth your time. Do you need the help.

 

[TommyG]

It's useful having ad-hoc holds in a panel-mounted GPS navigator that can drive an autopilot via GPSS, but I'm still struggling to see the value in tablet-based EFB.

Seems like just another case of marketing featuritis. I'm sure Garmin will scramble to add the same thing to Garmin Pilot now so that they keep up with each other in the feature matrix.

Foreflight is great at adding a lot of “cool” features, but I don’t really find a lot of them useful in real world applications.