3 min base turn: (3 min + ~1 min turn) = 4 min total to 3 min o/b/ so ~1.3x drift
Rubbish.
If one takes the extreme case, one will be tracking 30deg from the outbound leg at the start of the procedure. Thus one will have to intercept the outbound leg somewhere into the outbound timing or 3 minutes. Also if you only spend 1 minute turning, you will only complete 180degrees at rate 1 and thus will not only be heading across the inbound track but with the crosswind component that started this debate, you will disappear into the unprotected zone at a startling rate.
The whole notion of 3 x drift is used because no track guidance is available on the outbound leg of a hold or a racetrack procedure.
In a racetrack procedure of more than 1 minute outbound, the standard method of operation is to apply 3 X drift for the 1st minute and then reduce that to 1X drift for the remainder of the outbound time.
How can I explain this simply so that you will undestand?........
Imagine you had GPS guidance on the outbound leg of a racetrack procedure that enabled;
a) you to track the outbound leg with a certain amount of accuracy; and
b) the protected area to be reduced in accordance with your ability to track accurately outbound.
Would you not think it a tad dangerous to blindly apply 3 X drift even when it is clear that the protected area may not contain such an allowance and also worry that in the CFIT accident report, the data download the investigator takes from the avionics shows you outside the published required track?
Purely used as an example of course!
Regards,
DFC