Page 45 - Volume 20 Number 9

radial, and an unprotected side. If you fumble around on the protect- ed side it’s mostly okay. Fumbling around on the unprotected side is bad. Holding speeds, direction of turns, timing or distance and entry techniques are all designed to keep you in the chunk of airspace that is protected on the holding side.
T-D-P
Figuring out how to enter a hold- ing pattern was my nemesis for years. There are many manuals, study guides and instructor tech- niques that explain how to enter a holding pattern. I’ve heard most of them and tried to find one that I could remember ... and failed
SEPTEMBER 2016
miserably. With hopeful optimism and humility I offer the one that finally made sense and stuck with me: T-D-P. Tear- drop-Direct-Parallel. I bought an HPC-2 from ASA (yes, the airline pi- lot needed a visual aid). It’s a hand-held card depicting left and right holding patterns with a clear rotating compass card. Remember the letters T-D-P in that order and that standard turns are to the right and non-standard to the left. For standard, right turn holding, picture an HSI divided in half with the line starting 70 degrees RIGHT from your heading. If your heading is 360, the line starts at 070 and slices
over to 250.
You put the T in the 70-degree wedge, you put the D below it in the bigger 180-degree wedge and finally, the P in the remaining small wedge. Now, put the holding radial on the HSI and see which wedge it is in. For non- standard, LEFT turns,
the line dividing the HSI in half starts at 70 degrees LEFT of your heading. Which, if headed 360, is 290 and slices over to 110. The T goes in the 70-degree wedge again, the D below it in the bigger 180-de- gree wedge again and finally, the P in the remaining small wedge. Put in the holding radial and, voilà! Don’t forget to slow down if need- ed and report entering the hold. I know, it’s painful. I hate holding problems too.
Loading a holding fix and pattern into the MD-80’s GFMS takes about ten seconds if the hold is at a published fix and, because of proficiency, it takes
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