Timing holds with FMC equipped airacft
 

There is a persistence on behalf of a TRE in our sim sessions that we time our holds even though we are flying a modern FMC-equipped type airliner . He says this is part of the test standards ( I think he refers to the IR test standards ) . However I find it hard to believe that this applies to an FMC equipped type aircaft and there’s got to be some exception in the IR standards for FMC equipped typed aircraft. Why the whole argument ? Because we always deal with an emergency whilst we are in a hold in the sim and timing the hold is just not something that is natural to do in such occasions in a modern airliner . Any comments and pointing out to some regulations on this issue ?

Generally fly leg length as turns cost money in fuel burn.
If anybody insists on a timed hold then the time is put in the FMC and the autopilot flies the magenta figure.
If we’re talking a TRE that gives you a dual FMC failure, raw data, engine out with your tail on fire and now you “need to hold” somebody needs to take him behind the building.

For EASA, the reference is Appendix 9 of Part FCL. It just says holding procedures with no mention of timing tolerance. We 100% permit use of the FMS automation in our operation.