Holding pattern entry calculator.
Work out whether an arrival calls for a direct, parallel or teardrop entry, the heading to fly, and the inbound leg timing, from the published inbound course and your arrival track.
Holding pattern entry
Enter the inbound holding course published for the fix, the track or heading the aircraft is flying as it arrives, and which way the pattern turns.
Entry procedure
The entry sector is measured from the inbound course, in the direction the pattern turns, so the same geometry serves a standard or a non-standard hold.
Entry
Direct
The procedure to fly on reaching the fix
Relative angle
90°
Measured in the direction the pattern turns, which is the angle the 180/70/110 sector table is read with
Outbound heading
180°
Reciprocal of the inbound course
Entry heading to fly
180°
outbound heading
Holding side
Right of the inbound course
Inbound leg timing
1 minute
At or below 14,000 ft MSL
In the EASA ATPL exam
Holding pattern entries are tested in ATPL Radio Navigation and turn up again in Instrumentation questions that combine the entry with an HSI or RMI reading. The exam gives an inbound course and an arrival heading or track, sometimes dressed up as a VOR radial or an NDB bearing, and asks which of direct, parallel or teardrop applies, or asks for the heading to roll out on after the turn.
The trap the examiner reaches for most often is the boundary case: a track that sits within a few degrees of the 070 or the reciprocal line, where two entries are both defensible and the options offered test whether you know the 5-degree tolerance exists at all, or whether you will pick confidently and wrongly.
Exam-style example
The inbound holding course to a fix is 090, right turns (standard). You arrive over the fix on a track of 200. Which entry, and what heading do you turn to?
- Relative angle: 200 minus 090 = 110 degrees, measured in the turn direction because the hold is standard (right).
- Sector check: direct covers 0 to 180, teardrop covers 180 to 250, parallel covers 250 to 360. A relative angle of 110 falls inside the direct sector.
- Direct entry: fly to the fix and turn right to establish outbound on the reciprocal of 090, which is 270.
- Boundary check: 110 is 110 degrees from the 0 boundary and 70 degrees from the 180 boundary, both well outside the 5-degree tolerance, so direct is the only acceptable entry here.
Direct entry, turning right onto an outbound heading of 270. Compare this against a track of 175 instead: that sits only 5 degrees from the direct or teardrop boundary, and the calculator would flag both entries as acceptable.
Common trap: Parallel and teardrop are the pair students confuse under pressure, because both are entered with a turn away from the inbound course rather than a direct turn onto the pattern. The second trap is forgetting that a non-standard, left-turn hold mirrors the whole diagram, not just the turn direction, so an entry worked out for a right-turn hold does not transfer across without reflecting the sectors. The third is treating an arrival exactly on the inbound course as an automatic direct entry: it sits on the sector boundary itself, where the published 5-degree flexibility applies and either the direct or the parallel entry either side of it may be acceptable.
How the holding pattern entry is worked out
The definition, the formula, a worked example and how it shows up in the ATPL exams.
How the holding pattern entry is worked out
The definition, the formula, a worked example and how it shows up in the ATPL exams.How the three sectors are built
The inbound holding course, drawn as a line through the fix, splits the full circle in half. The half on the non-holding side is the direct sector: from anywhere in it, the turn onto the pattern is 180 degrees or less in the direction of the hold, so you simply fly to the fix and turn to establish outbound. The rule is described in ICAO Doc 8168, PANS-OPS, Volume I, Part I, Section 6, which this page names but does not reproduce, since ICAO's own copyright notice permits personal, non-commercial download only.
The holding-side half is cut again, 70 degrees from the reciprocal of the inbound course, giving a 70-degree teardrop sector against the outbound direction and the remaining 110 degrees of parallel. That gives the published widths: 180 degrees direct, 70 degrees teardrop, 110 degrees parallel, which always sum to 360 regardless of which course the pattern is built on. A non-standard, left-turn hold is the exact mirror image of this construction, same three widths, reflected about the inbound course line rather than recomputed from scratch.
The three entry procedures
The FAA Aeronautical Information Manual, paragraph 5-3-8, a US federal government work in the public domain, describes direct entry as to "fly directly to the fix and turn to follow the holding pattern." It is the simplest of the three and the one most students get right without thinking about it.
Parallel entry is to "turn to a heading to parallel the holding course outbound on the nonholding side for one minute, turn in the direction of the holding pattern through more than 180 degrees, and return to the holding fix or intercept the holding course inbound." The key detail is that the outbound leg is flown on the non-holding side, opposite to where the pattern actually is, before turning back through the pattern to rejoin.
Teardrop entry is to "fly to the fix, turn outbound to a heading for a 30 degree teardrop entry within the pattern (on the holding side) for a period of one minute, then turn in the direction of the holding pattern to intercept the inbound holding course." Unlike parallel, the teardrop leg is flown inside the pattern, on the holding side, offset 30 degrees from the outbound heading.
The 5-degree tolerance at a boundary
The same AIM paragraph gives the tolerance directly: "Determine entry turn from aircraft heading upon arrival at the holding fix; +/- 5 degrees in heading is considered to be within allowable good operating limits for determining entry." That means a track sitting close to the 0, 180, or 250-degree lines (measured from the inbound course, in the direction of the turn) is not a single right answer. This calculator reports the alternative entry and the exact number of degrees from the nearest boundary whenever the tolerance applies, rather than silently rounding to one side.
In practice this matters most for a briefing or an exam question built deliberately close to a line, and it matters far less in the aircraft, where the actual turn onto a racetrack pattern is forgiving of a few degrees either way.
What this tool does not do
This is study and briefing geometry only. The published holding procedure and the air traffic control clearance always prevail over anything this page computes. It takes no account of wind, which drifts a racetrack pattern off the plotted shape and changes the timing of each leg; no account of aircraft category, which sets the holding speed and therefore the size of the pattern the aircraft actually flies; and no account of any holding speed limit that applies at the altitude and category you are flying.
Use it to check your own working on a Radio Navigation or Instrumentation question, or to see the entry geometry laid out before a briefing. It is a way to build the mental model, not a replacement for the chart.
Good to know
Background and tips for getting the most out of this calculator.
Good to know
Background and tips for getting the most out of this calculator.Standard and non-standard both covered
Choose right turns for a standard hold or left turns for a non-standard one. The same geometry serves both: a non-standard hold is the mirror image, not a different set of rules.
Boundary cases are flagged, not hidden
A track within 5 degrees of a sector line gets both acceptable entries named, with the exact distance from the boundary, rather than a single answer that hides how close the call is.
The diagram matches the numbers
Every value in the diagram, the inbound course, the arrival track, the sectors and the pattern shape, is also printed as text above it, so you can check the picture against the figures.
Frequently asked questions
Tap to read the full background and answers.
Frequently asked questions
Tap to read the full background and answers.- How do I use this holding pattern entry calculator?
- Enter the inbound holding course published for the fix, the track or heading you are flying as you arrive, and whether the pattern turns right (standard) or left (non-standard). The calculator returns the entry procedure, direct, parallel or teardrop, along with the outbound heading, the heading to fly for the entry itself, and which side of the inbound course the pattern sits on.
- What is the difference between a parallel and a teardrop entry?
- Both are flown when the aircraft arrives from the holding side, but from different parts of it. A parallel entry is flown from close to the outbound heading itself: you fly outbound on the non-holding side for the timed leg, then turn through more than 180 degrees to rejoin. A teardrop entry is flown closer to the inbound course: you turn outbound to a heading offset 30 degrees into the pattern, fly that for the timed leg, then turn to intercept the inbound course. Mixing the two up is the single most common mistake, because both start with a turn away from the inbound course and the difference is only in which heading you turn to and where you finish up relative to the pattern.
- What does a non-standard hold change?
- A non-standard hold uses left turns instead of the standard right turns, and the entire diagram mirrors about the inbound course line. A track that gives a teardrop entry into a standard, right-turn hold gives a teardrop entry into the mirror-image left-turn hold too, from the mirrored side. The construction, the 180-70-110 degree split, and the entry names are unchanged; only the geometry is flipped left to right.
- What if my track lands right on a sector boundary?
- The FAA Aeronautical Information Manual gives plus or minus 5 degrees of heading as within allowable good operating limits for determining entry. This calculator checks the arrival track against all three boundaries and, when it is within that 5-degree band, names the other entry and tells you how many degrees you are from the line, so you can see that either is acceptable rather than treating the boundary as a single hard cut.
- Why does the inbound leg change from 1 minute to 1.5 minutes?
- The published inbound leg timing is 1 minute at or below 14,000 ft MSL and 1.5 minutes above it, because true airspeed and groundspeed both increase with altitude and a longer leg keeps the pattern a sensible size in track miles. The calculator applies that threshold to the altitude you enter and shows which figure applies and why.
- Can I use this to fly a real holding pattern?
- No. This is a study and briefing tool. The entry you actually fly is whatever the published procedure or the ATC clearance requires, and this calculator takes no account of wind, aircraft category, or the holding speed limit that applies to your aircraft and altitude. Use it to check your own working on a practice question or to see the geometry before a briefing, never as a substitute for the chart or the clearance.
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