"Roy Smith" wrote in message
...

It has always struck me odd that a standard landing pattern is left
turns and a standard hold is right turns. Having a left patterns for
landing makes a bit of sense, since the pilot is on the left side of the
cockpit and has a better view of the runway making left turns.

But, for IFR holds, there doesn't seem to be any advantage to one way or
the other. Why did they pick right turns to be standard?


I've wondered that myself. I've got a pretty good collection of old
training and procedures manuals that go back to the thirties but I've never
found a definite answer. The only thing fairly close was an explanation for
the shape of the holding pattern. Gyro instruments needed time to settle
down after a turn, so the one minute straight leg was established to allow
them to do that. A holding pattern of a continuous turn would cause
excessive precession. That explanation seemed rather weak to me. A
circular pattern would seem rather dizzying and make maintaining one's
position more difficult, which I think would be more than enough reason to
have the level segment. But it does bring up the issue of excessive
precession. I'm certainly no expert on the mechanics of gyros, but it seems
reasonable that a turn in one direction could cause more precession than a
turn in the opposite direction. Assuming gyros turned in a standard
direction, perhaps right turns were made standard because they caused less
precession.

Well, that's my best guess.