I've got a 'Hold Calculator' App on my iPhone but have never used it. Everytime I try to it just get confusing.
The single best way I sort out a hold is to just look at the hold orientation and I can instantly see which entry is appropriate and what sort of drift corrections I may need to make. I buggered around for hours during my IR trying to get the maths right and when it came down to IR Test day the examiner turned up early and in the madness I forgot to sketch the hold axis on the approach plate, flew it by feel and watching the needle rather than by maths (which is only as accurate as the wind forecasts anyway). Worked out perfect. I'm not being a smartarse but everyone has their own methods.
I was very lucky, my instructor at the time viewed hold's as an artform and it was an utter pleasure to learn from him. Sadly it's a skill that soon get's rusty.....if I need to hold now I just tell the FMC where, plonk in the inbound and which way I want it to go round, Activate, Execute and off we go. Sad but reality unless you're flying something less automated it's not something that you ever have to do. I still have a play on RANT every now and then just to make sure I can still do it manually though.
2W2R
