B777 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Flight Engineer; Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Multiengine
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 160; Flight Crew Total 13475; Flight Crew Type 4990
Human-Machine Interface; Distraction; Situational Awareness; Time Pressure
ATC Issue All Types; Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical; Deviation - Track / Heading All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
Air Traffic Control Issued Advisory / Alert; Flight Crew Returned To Clearance
Procedure; Weather; Human Factors
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.
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.