I was just watching flights that were coming in to land at Londons Heathrow airport today, February 10, 2016 add about 1600 hrs. Greenwich Mean Time, when I noticed something that I have never encountered in all my informal studies of aviation.
Even without the benefit of having an air traffic control scanner, and living close enough to Heathrow to be able to enjoy listening in on ATC conversations with inbound aircraft, the perfectly choreographed aerial ballet performed by multiple aircraft traversing that highly congested airspace around Heathrow Airport really is a thing of beauty to behold on my computer screen, thanks to Flight Radar 24.
Looking just now at several aircraft that were on descent to Heathrow runway 27, I was really intrigued by the holding patterns performed by quite a few of those aircraft, with many of those very intricate maneuvers being carried out over the town of Romford a few miles due north east of Heathrow.
Rather than a circular holding pattern or a rectangular holding pattern that I am accustomed to seeing in the tutorials that are included with Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004, for example, what I saw on the screen of these real-time flights went far beyond those simple circular or racetrack shapes that I expected to see for holding patterns.
Specifically, as the aircraft made their banking turns in the holding pattern, there were periodic S shaped deviations from the circle, to the left and right, at regular intervals along the entire course of the holding pattern. There is definitely an artistic beauty that is imparted on those standard holding patterns by those S shaped deviations from the circular course, despite their obvious utility in maintaining aircraft separation.
With absolutely zero real-world flying experience under my belt, I guess my question to any real-world pilots who visit this forum would be whether it is correct to assume that all those evenly spaced deviations from a standard holding pattern are being performed by the flight crew in response to instructions issued rapid-fire by air traffic control even as the normal holding pattern is being followed.
Thanks to products by desktop flight simulator enhancements by PMDG and Level D for Boeing birds, I have a non-qualified laymans familiarity with the programmed inclusion of holding patterns into flight paths that are defined by entries into the Flight Management Computer, and it is because I do not recall encountering any reference to these highly complex holding patterns, that I find them so intriguing and mysterious.
Unfortunately I havent yet figured out how to post screenshots from the Flight Radar 24 website pages in this discussion forum, which is why I have attempted to make my verbal descriptions of these fascinating flight paths as detailed as I can here. To better understand the phenomenon that Im trying sperately to convey here in words, right now would be a good time to look at traffic coming into Heathrow runway 27, and take a closer look at some of the holding patterns being performed by inbound passenger jets, particularly over the town of Romford.
I sure would be grateful for any explanations that can be offered as to why and how these highly unusual holding patterns are carried out, obviously on a regular basis. Thank you very much in advance for any thoughts that can be shared on the subject.
Even without the benefit of having an air traffic control scanner, and living close enough to Heathrow to be able to enjoy listening in on ATC conversations with inbound aircraft, the perfectly choreographed aerial ballet performed by multiple aircraft traversing that highly congested airspace around Heathrow Airport really is a thing of beauty to behold on my computer screen, thanks to Flight Radar 24.
Looking just now at several aircraft that were on descent to Heathrow runway 27, I was really intrigued by the holding patterns performed by quite a few of those aircraft, with many of those very intricate maneuvers being carried out over the town of Romford a few miles due north east of Heathrow.
Rather than a circular holding pattern or a rectangular holding pattern that I am accustomed to seeing in the tutorials that are included with Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004, for example, what I saw on the screen of these real-time flights went far beyond those simple circular or racetrack shapes that I expected to see for holding patterns.
Specifically, as the aircraft made their banking turns in the holding pattern, there were periodic S shaped deviations from the circle, to the left and right, at regular intervals along the entire course of the holding pattern. There is definitely an artistic beauty that is imparted on those standard holding patterns by those S shaped deviations from the circular course, despite their obvious utility in maintaining aircraft separation.
With absolutely zero real-world flying experience under my belt, I guess my question to any real-world pilots who visit this forum would be whether it is correct to assume that all those evenly spaced deviations from a standard holding pattern are being performed by the flight crew in response to instructions issued rapid-fire by air traffic control even as the normal holding pattern is being followed.
Thanks to products by desktop flight simulator enhancements by PMDG and Level D for Boeing birds, I have a non-qualified laymans familiarity with the programmed inclusion of holding patterns into flight paths that are defined by entries into the Flight Management Computer, and it is because I do not recall encountering any reference to these highly complex holding patterns, that I find them so intriguing and mysterious.
Unfortunately I havent yet figured out how to post screenshots from the Flight Radar 24 website pages in this discussion forum, which is why I have attempted to make my verbal descriptions of these fascinating flight paths as detailed as I can here. To better understand the phenomenon that Im trying sperately to convey here in words, right now would be a good time to look at traffic coming into Heathrow runway 27, and take a closer look at some of the holding patterns being performed by inbound passenger jets, particularly over the town of Romford.
I sure would be grateful for any explanations that can be offered as to why and how these highly unusual holding patterns are carried out, obviously on a regular basis. Thank you very much in advance for any thoughts that can be shared on the subject.