Originally Posted by
mahasamatman
Or for specific instrument arrivals (mostly lower traffic airports) or training. I can't count the number of holding patterns my instructors put me through during instrument training.
Heh, true, although in 9 years of instrument flying I've done precisely 3 holds for non-training or currency purposes. (Oddly enough, one was on my first flight after my instrument checkride.) Naturally, I’d expect an airline pilot to have a lot more than that, but it’s still not nearly as common as other methods of managing arrival traffic.