Drag the fix or the aircraft on the map to reposition. Drag empty map to pan. Zoom with the + − buttons on the map, the scroll wheel, or a two-finger pinch.
Variation is east positive. Wind is the direction it blows from.
Clearance drill: you get a clearance — read or spoken — and set the hold up in HOLD. CHECK grades every element.
Entry drill: a random hold and a random position. Call the entry before the sectors are revealed.
Time the inbound leg, wings level to the fix, target one minute. Inbound ran over → take half the error off the outbound. Inbound ran short → put double the error on the outbound.
inbound 1:30 (+30) → outbound 0:45
inbound 0:50 (−10) → outbound 1:20
The asymmetry is real: outbound with a tailwind, a second of extra time buys a lot of ground, so correct gently. Outbound into the wind it buys little, so correct hard.
Whatever drift correction holds the inbound course, triple it in the opposite direction outbound — you are in the wind for the two turns as well as the leg. Inbound 010 for a course of 360 → outbound 165, not 180.
Turn · Time · Twist · Throttle · Talk.
70 teardrop, 110 parallel, 180 direct. Measured from the inbound course; teardrop and parallel sit either side of the outbound course line, direct gets the whole holding side. Mirror them for left turns.
Right turns, one minute legs at or below 14,000 ft, 1½ minutes above. ATC only says what is non-standard, so “left turns” and mileage legs get spoken, right turns and one-minute legs do not.
200 at or below 6,000 · 230 to 14,000 · 265 above 14,000.
The radial you are cleared to hold on is the outbound one — fly its reciprocal inbound. “Hold south on the 180 radial” means an inbound course of 360.
HOLD: fix name, inbound course, turn direction, timed or DME/GPS legs, altitude. The radial and any rule violations are shown as you set it.
CLEARANCE: shows the ATC clearance for the hold in a bar under the toolbar, and what ATC leaves unsaid because it is standard. The bar takes no room until it has something to show.
WIND: wind direction, wind speed and magnetic variation. The button carries the wind so you can read it without opening the panel.
MAP: hides the map for needles-only practice. ADF shows the bearing pointer to the fix, off by default to keep the panel short on small screens. ENTRIES draws the entry sectors and lights up the one you are in.
REF: memory aids for holding.
AP: OFF → HDG (flies the bug) → HOLD (direct to the fix, picks the entry, flies the pattern with tripled outbound drift correction and half-over/double-short timing).
Turning: the ◀ ▶ buttons under the heading indicator roll into a standard rate turn that way and stay lit until you press again to level off. Dragging the card sets a heading directly instead. Either one takes the autopilot out.
Heading bug: the HDG knob at the lower left of the heading indicator. Grab it and a ring opens up to turn against — swing anywhere around it, you do not have to stay on the knob. The ring is the same card as the instrument, heading up, so the marker starts exactly where the bug sits on the HI: heading 090 with the bug on 210 puts it at four o’clock. It works whatever the autopilot is doing, so you can set the bug first and then engage AP HDG.
Cards follow your finger: drag a compass card and it rotates with you, exactly like turning the real one, so the reading under the lubber line counts down as you drag clockwise. The knob is the other way round — it is turned, not dragged, so clockwise counts up. Drag the CDI card to set the OBS, or SYNC it to the inbound course.
Stopwatch: runs on sim time, so it follows time compression. OUT and IN below it are timed automatically — OUT starts abeam the fix or wings level, whichever is later.
QUIZ: clearance drill (set up what you were cleared for) and entry drill (call the entry).
▶ starts and pauses the simulation — it starts paused, so set the scenario up first. The × button next to it compresses time up to 8×. SHARE copies a URL with the scenario baked in.