Air-To-Air Footage - Holding for Heathrow: 777 Aerial Video

[Oliver P.]

Thought the community may find this intriguing, caught this sequence while circling in a 20-minute downward-spiraling hold for 27R at Heathrow. At any given time I could pick out 1 to 3 heavy traffic in the area; this BA 777-236ER was particularly close.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fyh7ZlDO5kI

Enjoy. Anybody know the official hold procedure here? We seemed to spiral down, other than that I'm not familiar with this LHR sequence, other than the fact that it would be a shorter hold if they actually built the 3rd Runway!

[Michael Wolf]

It is always a very awesome sight to see another aircraft like that. I very much enjoy flying into airports like Atlanta or Chicago O'Hare, for the parallel approaches. Haven't been to SFO but their parallels are pretty damn fascinating.

[Atamvir Multani]

I guess , i know , why were the aircrafts spiralling down , the reason is , LHR has a special system , when traffic is high , th aircraft enter what is called 'stacks' and keep descending down spirally in a concentric pattern , this is a innovation at heathrow!!

[brianw999]

Heathrow uses up to four holding stacks, Bovingdon, Lambourne, Ockham and Biggin Hill. Aircraft are kept at 1,000 feet vertical separation descending to a minimum 7,000 feet above ground level at which level they then peel off to the relevant approach. This link will explain it better than I can....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7196158.stm

[Michael Wolf]

Holding patterns are used in every busy airport in the world, more in some than others. The only purpose of the procedure is to provide the desired separation to the aircraft on approach by holding them in one spot and releasing them from the hold with a proper separation. Aircraft are arriving from all directions, and it's not always possible to ensure the proper separation without the use of holding. Think of it as a feeder line at a store or a bank. People gather up in a line because they can't just all rush through, and walk through one after the other. And a holding procedure does just that.

[brianw999]

Holding patterns are used in every busy airport in the world, more in some than others. The only purpose of the procedure is to provide the desired separation to the aircraft on approach by holding them in one spot and releasing them from the hold with a proper separation. Aircraft are arriving from all directions, and it's not always possible to ensure the proper separation without the use of holding. Think of it as a feeder line at a store or a bank. People gather up in a line because they can't just all rush through, and walk through one after the other. And a holding procedure does just that.

...and is a pain in the backside when you are on a 2hr flight and spend a quarter or more of that again in a holding pattern.

....especially when you are landing at Heathrow and the extra time means that you hit the M25 motorway rush hour (read 3 hours !!)

For those that don't know about the M25 motorway....it's colloquially known as the fastest car park in the world !!

[LH-B744]

I don't compare Heathrow to "my" airport, but, isn't it a wonder how Heathrow fulfils a day's work with exactly the same amount of runways?

Sometimes it seems like a human-made wonder.