STACK DEPARTURE TIME
The reason why I ask that question was because a couple senior training captains believe that they can exit the hold (cut the outbound leg) to make the OCT at the fix.
However, many junior captains and the majority of the pilots believe that an OCT is the time that they’ll get onwards clearance and that the hold they’ve been cleared to is 10nm. Therefore, they will do a 10nm hold unless told otherwise.
From what I’ve heard from ATC, normally we’ve been radar vectored to exit the hold as opposed told to “shorten/lengthen hold to depart fix at XX”.
So its not just us pilots who are unsure. I guess there is no sure answer. Thanks for looking into it though.
Well a great find of this forum. Clearly this has considerable impact for ATC and sequencing, depending on interpretation by the crew. We will discuss internally, liaise with ICAO and publish an outcome.
Clearly for ATC, if aircrew can do accurate positioning to achieve times, this considerably reduces ATC workload, reduces R/T and minimises vectoring to maintain the intended sequence. Highly desirable.