While on a vector to the ILS final a B777 flight crew was surprised by a clearance to hold at an unp...

Narrative:

We had prepared for approach to atl and had just been given vectors to the ILS final off the honie arrival into atl. We were flying to the airport in anticipation of an ILS to runway 10 when ATC notified us that windshear had been reported at the airport and to expect holding. The controller immediately gave us instructions to hold southwest on the atl 230 degree radial at 20 DME; right turns.given that we were on vectors and no longer on the magenta line; the holding information took us a little by surprise and the PF put the information into the fix page to give us a clue where we were in relation to the holding fix while I set up the FMS to enter the holding information. The controller queried us as to whether we were heading to the holding fix and while we had started a slow turn toward it; I wasn't completely certain where we were in relation to the fix as my head was down programming the FMS. We had not received a vector toward the fix and given that we were being vectored toward final approach just prior to getting holding instructions it took a minute to do a quick fix to fix and load the information into the FMS. The captain turned us toward the fix while I got the holding instructions loaded and we entered holding. We then requested a change in the fix as the 20 DME fix was close enough to buildups that we wanted to avoid the weather. The controller extended the holding point to the 25 DME fix; 10 mile legs which we complied with until we left holding for a successful approach and landing in atl. Fortunately; we cover holding in almost every recurrent training session and I knew that to load the FMS we had to 'go there' to 'hold there'; but it still came as a surprise and took longer than I would have liked to ensure we were headed to the fix in a timely manner.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: While on a vector to the ILS final a B777 flight crew was surprised by a clearance to hold at an unpublished VOR Radial/DME fix which had to be programmed independent of their active route. The delay which resulted caused ATC to query their track toward the holding fix.

Narrative: We had prepared for approach to ATL and had just been given vectors to the ILS final off the HONIE arrival into ATL. We were flying to the airport in anticipation of an ILS to RWY 10 when ATC notified us that windshear had been reported at the airport and to expect holding. The Controller immediately gave us instructions to hold SW on the ATL 230 degree radial at 20 DME; right turns.Given that we were on vectors and no longer on the magenta line; the holding information took us a little by surprise and the PF put the information into the fix page to give us a clue where we were in relation to the holding fix while I set up the FMS to enter the holding information. The Controller queried us as to whether we were heading to the holding fix and while we had started a slow turn toward it; I wasn't completely certain where we were in relation to the fix as my head was down programming the FMS. We had not received a vector toward the fix and given that we were being vectored toward final approach just prior to getting holding instructions it took a minute to do a quick fix to fix and load the information into the FMS. The Captain turned us toward the fix while I got the holding instructions loaded and we entered holding. We then requested a change in the fix as the 20 DME fix was close enough to buildups that we wanted to avoid the weather. The Controller extended the holding point to the 25 DME fix; 10 mile legs which we complied with until we left holding for a successful approach and landing in ATL. Fortunately; we cover holding in almost every recurrent training session and I knew that to load the FMS we had to 'go there' to 'hold there'; but it still came as a surprise and took longer than I would have liked to ensure we were headed to the fix in a timely manner.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1104803
Time
Date	201307
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ATL.Airport
State Reference	GA
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B777 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Route In Use	Vectors
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	FMS/FMC
Person 1
Function	Pilot Not Flying First Officer
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Flight Engineer Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Multiengine
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 160 Flight Crew Total 13475 Flight Crew Type 4990
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Track / Heading All Types Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence

While on a vector to the ILS final a B777 flight crew was surprised by a clearance to hold at an unpublished VOR radial/DME fix which had to be programmed independent of their active route. The delay which resulted caused ATC to query their track toward the holding fix.