August 23rd, 2003 – Back in the plane again. Today’s topic was sure to be tough…Holding patterns. I have done them in the sim and they did not seem bad, but I was not bouncing around and I had fewer distractions to worry about.

We took off from and headed towards the Farmington VOR for the holds. Soon after leaving the ground, I could feel that it was a little choppy and I knew I was in for a mess. We flew south for a few minutes to stay away from MSP Class ‘B’ and then Drew had me track direct to the Farmington VOR. I dialed it into the VOR and started tracking my way. Drew gave me my hold early so that I would have plenty of time to set it up. A lot of good that did…

I was told to hold East of the VOR on the 090 radial. O.K. draw it out now…I had my position off at first so I had trouble drawing the hold. After a gentle reminder from Drew I figured out where we were coming from, NW, and the type of entry we would use…Parallel. I crossed the fix and headed outbound for 1 minute. I then made the left 225-degree turn to intercept the inbound course of 090. I then flew inbound and when the needle flipped, I started my turn towards the outbound course of 270. I started the timer once on course and flew outbound for another minute. I started the turn back inbound and came up with a time of 1:15. I tried a :50 second outbound leg to hit the 1 min. inbound time. Came back inbound and again hit 1:10. Damn…If I would keep the plane under control I might just hit the right time. I was having a terrible time trying to make it work and I knew Drew was getting frustrated as well.

I was told to head West and I thought great, the mess is over. Not So Fast. Drew was having head out so he could get me setup for the next hold. He gave me the hold Hold SW of the VOR on the 240 radial, left turns. O.K. let’s see if I can get this right. We are SW of the VOR and want the 240 radial, left turns, that would be a direct entry. Seems easy enough. I dialed in the 060 (inbound) to the station and off we went. I crossed the fix and started the left turn to head back outbound on a heading of 240. The first problem I had was trying to fly the 240 radial from the VOR. The needle was at full-scale deflection to my left and I started turning towards it. Why? I don’t know. Brain-Fart I guess. I was getting so frustrated that at one point when Drew was inquiring me about what I was doing, that I said “I have no idea, I am about to head back because I am getting nothing from this right now”.

One more trip around the hold and Drew said to take us back to Flying Cloud. Yippee, it is over for now. Drew made the radio calls and off we went. I took the hood off about five miles away from the apt and took us in visually. That was a relief for me. Short-lived relief as it would turn out. I got lined up with the centerline and was slightly high so I chopped the power and got down to the glideslope. I was a little fast when crossing the threshold so we floated much longer than I should have. I did get the plane down, but we bounced a bit and I thought great the flight sucked, now my landing sucked as well. Drew asked if I wanted to do another one and for a second I thought Hell No. After I was clear of the RW though I thought that would be the easy way out. I went back for one more trip around the pattern. It was not much better though. I started climbing too fast and my head was spinning. Also, I for got to take out the back trim that I had in for landing before I took off. I had to keep in forward pressure in order to keep the nose on the ground before rotation. I got lined up with the RW and was on the GS, but still was slightly fast. I bounced again and wanted to disappear. After some great landings last week, this was more than two steps back. Oh well, more stuff to work on. Drew had me working with the trim to get my speed on final, but that threw off my “normal” flow, if you can call it normal. Just another thing to work on for next time.

Things to Remember:
1. When drawing out the hold, draw the direct/teardrop/parallel pattern
perpendicular to the inbound leg.
2. If insure of where you are coming from, check the VOR. If you are tracking
direct to …. Check the reciprocal heading and that is where you are coming
from.
3. When flying on the outbound leg the needle should not be centered. DON’T try to
fly and center the needle. It should have a ‘FR’ indication and the needle
should be deflected to the side where the VOR is located.
4. Slow down and stay ahead of the plane.
5. Change the HDG bug when making turns and changing course.
6. Don’t worry, this will come in time.

Next up….NDB holds in the SIM…..

P.S. Later that day I found out that there was a mid-air collision with a Piper Cherokee and a C172 close to the Lake Elmo apt. The wifey saw that and was scared until she knew that I was home safely.