AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - January 2019 - 86

P&E

ON INSTRUMENTS

airplanes holding around the same fix. As
airplanes are cleared to land, ATC "shakes
the box" and clears each holding airplane
to progressively lower altitudes-until it's
your turn to shoot the approach. All of this
takes time.
Will you have enough fuel to wait it out
for your turn? Better check your EFC and
takeoff times from your departure airport
(you did write that down, or use a timer,
no?). A little math will tell when you're
likely to reach "minimum fuel" status-
meaning you'll have enough fuel to carry
out an arrival and approach to your destination using your assigned routing, and
land with legal fuel reserves-if there are
no delays. ATC is supposed to advise you
if a hold is likely to last more than an hour,
and issue instructions just in case. But can
you afford to mill around for an hour, then,
say, divert to an alternate and still land with
45 minutes' worth of reserve fuel? If your
answer is no, then this is the time to refuse
the clearance and ask for a diversion. If the
situation is critical, don't hesitate to declare
an emergency.
Remember, your EFC says nothing
about which approach will be in use. This
also should factor into your decision-making. The ATIS may say that one approach
is in use, but you may have to maneuver to
a different runway's approach. How much
more time will that take? Should you load
or activate the approach mentioned in the
ATIS? Probably not. If you're shaken to the
bottom of the "box" and it's your turn, you
don't want to be distracted at such a tense
time. The weather is already low, as is your
altitude. This may not be the best time to be
plugging a newly issued approach clearance
into your avionics.
And what if, after reaching decision
height/decision altitude or minimum
descent altitude, you see nothing and have
to execute a missed approach of your own?
Will you have enough fuel to execute the
miss, climb at high power back to the top
of the "box," and wait for who-knows-howlong for your next shot at the runway?
A word about the weather. If it's so bad
that below-minimums weather lasts for
hours (or days), then a second approach
may well end with another missed
approach. Tension and fatigue by then
86 | AOPA PILOT January 2019

will have taken their toll. Second or third
approaches have ended in accidents. Warm
and stationary frontal weather-especially
in the fall and winter months-are notoriously slow movers, so don't expect any
sudden improvements. And was any icing
forecast? If so, you shouldn't have taken off
in the first place if you're flying a typical piston single or twin.
Instead, plan for an early diversion
out of a lengthy hold. Just make sure that
lower ceilings and visibilities aren't going
to challenge your fuel reserves. Request a
diversion, and ATC should be able to clear
you out of the holding pattern and into bet-

Which brings us back to the EFC
time. If ATC doesn't give you one, then
ask for it. It's your lifeline in case you lose
communications when you're stuck in a
hold-or anywhere along a route plagued
by solid IMC. Yes, ATC should give
instructions if a hold is expected to last
more than an hour, but if your EFC is up,
there's no word from ATC, and your calls
aren't answered, then lost communications procedures kick in. First, squawk
7600 and see if you can hear ATC trying to reach you. Try turning up the radio
volume or turning down the squelch, or
selecting another radio. Try listening on

Will you have enough fuel to execute the miss,
climb at high power back to the top of the "box,"
and wait for who-knows-how-long for your
next shot at the runway?

ter weather. Your preflight planning should
already have told you exactly where the
good escape routes are.
For turbine pilots, the standard operational advice is to stick with fuel planning
that relies on the National Business
Aviation Association's IFR fuel reserve formula. It's a conservative planning scenario
that anticipates:
* Missing the approach at the destination.
* Climbing to a holding fix for a five-minute hold at 5,000 feet.
* Leaving the hold and cruising at longrange power to the alternate (this may be
100 or 200 nm away).
* Shooting an approach at the alternate.
This strategy is designed to leave you
with 30 minutes' worth of fuel after landing.
But I see a catch. In this scenario, the
hold occurs after shooting the approach,
not before-which is the situation we
discussed. With more fuel burned before
the first airport of intended landing, there's
obviously less available for flying to such
distant alternates with safe fuel reserves.
The seed of an eventual fuel emergency is
planted sooner in the flight, not later.

a nearby VOR's signal. You may be able to
communicate with ATC using transponder codes.
If you have an EFC time, and the holding fix is associated with an instrument
approach, begin your descent and approach
as near to the EFC time as you can, and
land. Without an EFC time, and if the holding fix is not a fix from which an approach
begins, fly to one that is-and begin your
descent or descent and approach as close
as possible to your planned or amended
estimated time of arrival at the destination.
Those are the rules, but if you go radio
silent while holding in a stack in IMC, what
then? Descending through the stack is a
very bad idea for obvious reasons. And if
you do make it out of the stack, what route
do you fly? Your assigned, expected, or
flight-planned route (to your alternate, in
the absence of the first two)?
There's plenty of food for thought here.
What would you do-apart from conjuring
up an airport in some good VFR weather? A
full load of fuel would also be nice. AOPA
EMAIL tom.horne@aopa.org
AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - January 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - January 2019
