On 10/12/07 14:17, Mortimer Schnerd, RN wrote:
Mark Hansen wrote:
I use 90. I don't know of any reason you can't use 80 if you like, other
than perhaps going slower than the controllers are expecting, and messing
with their timings, etc.


Why would they care? They want you to drill holes in a little chunk of sky to
kill time. They don't want you flying out of the protected chunk of sky
assigned to you but what you do within it really doesn't matter. You shouldn't
be competing with other aircraft within the circle... ATC will stack traffic
vertically instead of within the circle itself.

Remember, the prime reason to hold is to kill time... plain and simple. The
reason to slow down is only to save fuel since you're not going anywhere. You
could fly around at full speed if you've got the fuel to waste.

Sorry about the confusion. I use the same speed for holds that I do for other
flight around the approach area (for example, while on "base" getting vectored
to the FAC), and I was thinking of these other phases.

Still, you can go as slow as you want, and I didn't mean to imply that there
was any requirement to the contrary.


--
Mark Hansen, PP-ASEL, Instrument Airplane, USUA Ultralight Pilot
Cal Aggie Flying Farmers
Sacramento, CA