ON THE APPROACH

Hold, Then Reverse

Sorting out the missed approach or traffic delay hold from the course reversal can be confusing.
10 IFR Refresher, September 1998
REPRODUCED WITH PERMISSION JEPPESEN SANDERSON, INC., 1998. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
By Wally Roberts
YOUVE HEARD ME SAY AGAIN
and again that there are only two ways
to enter an instrument approach proce-
dure: via radar vectors to the final ap-
proach course or via the full approach,
which includes the published course re-
versal (unless you arrive on a NoPT
route).
Some IAPs dont have a published
course reversal, in which case all termi-
nal routes are implicitly NoPT. If an
IAP doesnt have a published course
reversal, theres no airspace evaluated
and protected for a course reversal.
What if, however, theres a holding
pattern at the final approach fix (FAF)
or the intermediate fix (IF) that is either
depicted as the end-point of the missed
approach procedure or perhaps its
charted only on the en route chart as a
en route or terminal holding pattern?
Can you make a course reversal in such
a pattern if you see the need to reverse
course? Well, it depends.
A course reversal is established to
get you lined up on the final approach
course within the intermediate segment
so you dont need to maneuver signifi-
Bold vs. Thin Depiction
In the United States, and most of
the world, charting convention dic-
tates that the course reversal segment,
and the subsequent approach seg-
ments to the missed approach point,
be charted in the profile view as well
as the plan view. Other segments are
shown in the plan view only. Where
there is no course reversal, it is left
somewhat to the discretion of the
approach designer where to begin the
profile view, provided it includes at
least both the intermediate and final
segments.
The flight-track portion of the IAP
in the profile view must be shown in
bold type, where all other IAP flight
tracks are shown in the plan view in
thinner type. For purposes of this ar-
ticle the type thickness distinction,
coupled with profile portrayal, is what
informs us a holding pattern is es-
tablished for course reversal in place
of a standard procedure turn.
Any other holding pattern shown
on an approach chart will be in thin
type. With rare exceptions, the only
thin-type holding pattern shown will
be a holding pattern established as
the end-point of the missed approach
procedure.WR.
Youre spinning in the hold at ADERR at 1,900 feet because
of a missed approach. When cleared for the approach, you
shouldnt go out for the procedure turn because youre al-
ready lined up on final out of the hold.
ON THE APPROACH
IFR Refresher, September 1998 11
(continued on next page)
cantly to enter the narrow, critical final
approach segment. It also ensures
youre on altitude so you can configure
the aircraft for final segment descent
and landing. An exception is the on-air-
port VOR or NDB IAP without a FAF,
in which the procedure turn takes you
directly into the final approach segment.
Wherever possible, an IAP is sup-
posed to have initial approach segments
that line up with the intermediate seg-
ment sufficiently so a NoPT entry
into the intermediate segment is pos-
sible. The other requirement is that an
optimum descent gradient of 150 feet
per mile (300 per mile maximum) be
established for the intermediate seg-
ment. The intermediate segment is the
shallowest approach segment because
this is where complex aircraft are being
slowed and configured for final ap-
proach.
Gradient within Course Reversal
A standard 10-mile procedure turn
must have a completion altitude not
greater than 2,000 feet higher than the
intermediate altitude across the FAF.
(Not more than 1,500 feet above MDA
for either a VOR or NDB IAP without
a FAF.) The altitude from the proce-
dure turn IAF to the procedure turn
completion altitude is not to exceed 250
feet per mile (optimum) to 500 feet per
mile (maximum). As you can see, the
approach designer can get rid of a lot
of altitude in a conventional procedure
turn.
A course reversal hold, however, is
much more critical because you can only
go outbound for one minute. If a course
reversal hold is at the FAF, the maxi-
mum altitude difference between the
minimum holding altitude and the in-
termediate altitude across the FAF is
only 300 feet (the max per mile inter-
mediate segment descent gradient). If
the course reversal hold is at the IF,
then 150-300 feet per mile is permitted
for the distance from the IF to the FAF.
Real World Examples
Lets review a few real-world mixes
of bold holding patterns, thin holding
patterns and procedure turns. Refer to
REPRODUCED WITH PERMISSION JEPPESEN SANDERSON, INC., 1998. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
the ILS RWY 32 at Jacksonville, FL
(page 10). This procedure incorporates
a missed approach holding pattern at the
IAF/FAF, as well as a standard proce-
dure turn. All pertinent altitudes are the
same: 1,900 feet for procedure turn out-
bound, procedure turn completion alti-
tude, intermediate altitude over the FAF
and missed approach minimum holding
altitude.
Suppose youre spinning in the hold
either because of a traffic delay or be-
cause you executed a missed approach
and youre holding at 1,900 feet. When
youre cleared for the approach, should
you go outbound and do the procedure
turn? The answer is no because youre
lined up on final out of the hold and
youre within 300 feet of the FAF alti-
tude.
Could you elect to do the procedure
turn in this case? Of course, but it would
be wise to advise ATC. Further, if the
Both the missed approach hold and standard procedure turn
are based on the IAF/FAF and both are on the same side. You
can make a straight-in from the holding pattern with an ap-
proach clearance after a missed approach or arrival delay
hold provided you extend the holding pattern out beyond one
minute up to the 10-mile maximum.
ON THE APPROACH
12 IFR Refresher, September 1998
Hold, Then Reverse
(continued from page 11)
The VOR/GPS at Porterville (left) looks simple enough, however, ATC will sometimes park you in the hold at high
altitude then clear you for the approach. Ask for another circuit in the hold to lose altitude if necessary. On the VOR/GPS
at Bishop (right), note the two feeder route altitudes are 16,000 feet! You must descend to 12,000 feet in the hold before
proceeding outbound for the procedure turn.
BOTH CHARTS REPRODUCED WITH PERMISSION JEPPESEN SANDERSON, INC., 1998. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
missed approach hold were on the same
side of the intermediate course as the
procedure turn, you could elect to ex-
tend the hold beyond one minute once
cleared for the approach because youre
at the procedure turn completion alti-
tude and on the procedure turn maneu-
vering side. Since you arent on the pro-
cedure turn maneuvering side in this
example, however, you cannot extend
the hold beyond one minute.
Same Side Turn
Refer to the ILS RWY 5 at Frederick,
MD (page 11). Both the missed ap-
proach hold and standard procedure turn
are based on the IAF/FAF and both are
on the same side. Can you make a
straight-in from this holding pattern with
an approach clearance after a missed
approach or arrival delay hold? Sure you
can, provided you extend the holding
pattern out beyond one minute up to
the 10-mile maximum. You need to de-
scend from 2,800 to 2,300 feet and be
far enough out to leave 2,300 feet once
established inbound in order to be be-
low the glideslope.
Personally, my preference is to cap-
ture the outbound course in such cir-
IFR Refresher, September 1998 13
ON THE APPROACH
cumstances and do a more conven-
tional procedure turn, but that is my
technique. Procedurally, however, when
cleared for the approach youre free to
extend the hold, provided its identically
aligned with the procedure turn and is
on the same side of course. If the pub-
lished hold in this example were on the
opposite side of course from the proce-
dure turn, the one minute holding limit
must be strictly observed when doing
the course reversal.
High Altitude Hold
The VOR or GPS-A at Porterville,
CA (page 12) has a missed approach
hold that even the most innovate
amongst us couldnt figure out how to
turn into a course reversal. I have per-
sonal knowledge of this location and
have known the Center (when approach
control is inoperative) to put aircraft into
this hold for traffic delays, then clear
the aircraft for the approach from some
pretty high altitudes. How high is too
high? Well, its up to you. Keep in mind
the optimum descent gradient for the
procedure turn outbound is 250 feet per
mile (500 feet per mile maximum).
If I were holding above 8,000 feet
and received an approach clearance, I
would request one more circuit in the
hold to lose altitude before I began the
procedure turn.
Mountain Bowl Approach
The VOR or GPS-A at Bishop, CA
(page 12) is an extreme case of a
mountain bowl approach. The feeder
routes to the IAF both have an MEA
of 16,000 feet. This is too high to do
a procedure turn! As a result, a hold-
ing pattern is charted to serve as a
descent to begin the procedure turn
hold. This is an exception to the gen-
eral rule that only course reversal and
missed approach holding patterns are
charted.
Holding Speeds
The maximum airspeed in all these
holds for piston-engine folks is 175
knots. For jet jocks, however, its more
convoluted: 200 knots is the jet maxi-
mum at 6,000 feet and below. In the
case of an IAP, however, youre well-
advised to keep it below 200 knots even
with course reversal holds at higher al-
titudes.
When Its Flexible
You have lots of flexibility where a
missed approach hold is based on the
same fix as the procedure turn and is
on the same side of course. If the course
reversal IAF is also the FAF, keep in
mind you want to be able to get down
after using the hold for a course rever-
sal, but you can extend the hold once
cleared for the approach to not exceed
procedure turn distance limits.
If the missed approach hold is on the
opposite side of the procedure turn,
youre limited to one minute outbound,
even when cleared for the approach. If
this non-procedure-turn-side hold is at
the FAF, use a 300-foot maximum dif-
ference in minimum holding altitude and
FAF altitude as a rule-of-thumb as to
whether to go straight-in from such a
holding pattern.
Know the Minimum Altitude
Always keep focused on the appli-
cable minimum altitude, whether it be
the minimum holding altitude, procedure
turn completion altitude or inbound alti-
tude over the FAF.
Wally Roberts is a retired airline cap-
tain, former chairman of the ALPA
TERPs Committee and an active CFII
in San Clemente, CA. Visit Wallys web
site at www.terps.com
IFR Refresher, September 1998 15
NAV/COM
GPS and Victor Airways
Its important to understand the ambiguities of direct-to GPS navigation.
By Wally Roberts
THE LAT/LON SYSTEM OF NAV-
igation is referenced to True North.
Magnetic courses, bearings, and head-
ings have no real use in this system, ex-
cept to accommodate magnetic compass
systems. GPS is predicated on the
LAT/LON system for aviation navi-
gation purposes, which would be far sim-
pler to use if everything could be refer-
enced to True North.
However, until the engineers figure
out a cost-effective true compass for
small aircraft, and we continue to have
the VOR system, were stuck with us-
ing magnetically-compensated GPS
navigation. If we went to true-north ref-
erence for GPS today, we would no
longer be able to display essentially cor-
rect wind crab angles on our HSI, we
would be unable to overlay GPS onto
the VOR system, and ATC would have
to switch its massive domestic radar
system to a true-north reference. Pilots
would have nightmares trying to con-
vert magnetic compass headings to true
on the fly.
All calculations made during the de-
sign of a GPS approach are in terms of
true course. The approach designer then
adjusts the approach courses for the
airports local magnetic variation. None-
theless, the GPS engine in your IFR
box knows only true course. As a re-
sult, the avionics vendors use various
proprietary algorithms to convert the
GPS true course back to magnetic.
These conversions arent precise by
any means. Its not unreasonable to ex-
pect 1-2 degrees difference from one
box to another at a given fix. Further,
those VOR radials you see on the Vic-
tor airways might or might not be the
actual magnetic course of the airway
radial. The VOR stations alignment
with magnetic north drifts over time and
is only tweaked by the FAA at widely-
spaced intervals.
The net effect could be a course er-
ror of greater than four degrees in some
instances if you attempt to intercept and
track a VOR radial using the indicated
bearing shown on your GPS, and using
Direct-To (or with some boxes, the
OBS mode) when the GPS bearing
is the same as the charted radial. This
could result in some significant devia-
tions from intended track when at any
substantial distance from a VOR sta-
tionin extreme cases taking you com-
pletely outside Victor airway protected
airspace.
Stored Flight Plans
If you fly a Victor airway with a
stored flight plan, the errors discussed
above disappear, because you are now
navigating on an iron rail between
published, magnetically-independent
waypoints. (The magnetic bearing
shown by the GPS may be off 1- 4
degrees, but this will just appear to be
a little bit of crosswind blowing across
the CDIs iron rail between published
waypoints.) This is one of two critical
reasons that the FAA insisted on an
iron rail stored flight plan for every
IFR-approved GPS approach, overlay
or standalone. The other critical reason
for database approaches is to eliminate
errors in entering either a waypoint
name or much worse raw LAT/LON.
Build Your Own Airways
Except for one or two of the IFR
receivers out there, you have to manu-
ally build your own Victor airways. This
means if you enter the wrong VOR
identifier or five letter intersection name
you could have huge errors. A reason-
ableness test will usually catch these er-
rors, however.
When manually building a Victor air-
way route, its a good idea to throw in
a midpoint intersection on longer legs.
Where the airway has a dogleg, its es-
sential to enter the turning point five-
letter identifier. These dogleg turn points
werent previously named, but most
if not allare now named and in your
database. With an IFR GPS box that
has an airway database, all of this air-
way building is done for you by the ven-
dor and Mr. Jeppesena strong argu-
ment in my view to buy a receiver with
a built-in airway database.
Feeder Routes
Feeder routes to initial approach fixes
arent required to be in the approachs
database string. If not, make sure you
fly the iron rail via a flight plan leg
from the feeder fix to the IAF, espe-
cially if the feeder route extends for a
considerable distance. Non-flight-plan-
leg Direct-To should be generally lim-
ited to short range operations where an
exact track isnt important. Some ex-
amples of this include a short-range
clearance direct to a feeder fix or IAF,
or a missed approach to a VOR or
NDB. The only time the Direct-To
button should be used for a long range
clearance is where the controller initiates
clearing you direct to a distance fix. You
should limit this to operations in the US
and Canada.
Shift your thinking about GPS to vi-
sualize it as true area navigation system
that only knows how to fly a great circle
from one LAT/LON position to another.
If you keep that concept in mind you
will understand that only by using flight
plan legs can you consistently and ac-
curately overlay the non-area-nav, non-
LAT/LON, VOR airway structure.
If your IFR GPS receiver doesnt
have a built-in airway database:
Add a midpoint intersection on
long legs.
Enter any airway doglegs.
Create a flight plan route from
the feeder fix to the IAF.