I'm an enroute controller and was wondering why a lot of times, the A320 can't (or won't) fly what I consider to be, a typical holding pattern at altitude.

I won't mention the carrier, but one operator in particular, never seems to keep the plane within "a reasonable distance" from the holding fix.

I realize things like altitude, aircraft configuration / weight, and wind are all factors in this. However, there are times when I have them stacked up from FL290-410 and for whatever reason, the A320 seems to stray a lot farther (especially making the crosswind to downwind leg of the turn). I will issue 15 mile legs to all of them, yet I find this plane more than 20 miles away from the fix and still truckin' away! It ends up being a box-pattern of 20 miles each way or more!

Is this pilot technique, pilot training by that company, or something inherent to the A320, that makes it so sloppy? I'll have a 767 make a tighter turn at a higher altitude a lot of times.

Thanks!

 

Three words: **** poor software.

FT

 

While I agree that it is horrible software, I can't think of a reason it would be that far off. I'll pay more attention next time I'm holding & see what I see. Luckily, flying mostly out west, we seldom hold at 'enroute' altitiudes.

 

We had the hold bug on our Airbuses last year. A lot of our guys had to write ASAP reports for straying outside of the protected area. It got fixed on the next month FMS update cycle.

Having been on the test side I can tell you that software engineers often place bugs in the software so they can come back and get paid to fix them later on. It's kind of a job protection program for software engineers.

A good test team would be aware of that and catch it way before it makes it to the real airplane. Don't count on the FAA, they are basically a rubber-stamp agency.

The Airbus is always full of surprises.

FT