Holding altitudes

[Lars_bali]

Id like to know the regular used holding altitudes when approaching Amsterdam Schiphol airport on a B772 which departed from MNL. In the flight planning and performance manual it states multiple altitudes... but how does one determine which one to use?

Thanks

[Bealzebub]

Holding pattern altitudes are dictated by Air Traffic control, depending on how busy they are and how many aircraft they need to place within one particular holding stack. The stack will have a lower and higher limit (say 6000ft - 12,000ft, in 1000ft intervals.) Aircraft are then normally taken out of the stack from the base. As one leaves, the one above it is cleared down 1000ft, then once it has left the next is cleared down and so on. If the airport is very busy, you will probably visit every available holding altitude in the stack. It doesn't matter what type of aircraft it is or where it has come from.