PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Parallel entries to the racetrack
View Single Post
Old 8th Feb 2005, 06:33
  #21 (permalink)  
OzExpat


PPRuNeaholic
 
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: Cairns FNQ
Posts: 3,255
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Lightbulb

On the Albi L09 it's "Hippodrome : T = 1 min 30", which means a 1 min 30 racetrack outbound.
Thanks for the clarification bookworm. I can now tell you what the procedure requires, from a design perspective.

The holding pattern is a standard 1 minute pattern and this is where you have the protection for the sector entries. All that achieves is to allow you to get onto the inbound holding track at least by the time you reach the NDB or Locator or whatever it is. You are then obliged to fly the racetrack before achieving final approach alignment as this is the only way that you'll have enough time for descent.

This will be the basis on which the procedure was designed. Do not make the mistake of thinking that your sector 1, 2 or 3 entry is protected by the longer time provided by the racetrack. It needs to be remembered that a racetrack is not a holding pattern, it is merely a method by which to achieve reversal. It is often quite a useful too for a procedure designer whenever there is a need to limit the amount of airspace that the procedure will occupy.

One reason for such a limitation might be a closely adjacent FIR boundary, but it could be for any number of other reasons too, of course. A great deal of airspace must be protected to cater for all the available sector entries, but this will only be protected within the confines the standard one-minute pattern, unless you are above MSA and have approval from ATC.

I hope this explains the situation but I'll keep checking back to this thread in case further clarification is required.
OzExpat is offline