I have never heard of such a thing, GA or non-GA.
Normally, holds are somewhere near the destination.
I personally have not gotten one but in case of widespread thunderstorms, it can happen that sectors get above a critical capacity level and then ATC are required to say “all aircraft on the frequency, hold at your present position”. I know several pilots who have had this situation.
While studying for the ATPL theory we learned it’s possible if ATC anticipates you will need to hold anyway and they know that in advance. Then they would make you hold enroute, somewhere high, so that you use less fuel and don’t congest the holding patterns close to the airports. That was theory, if it is implemented in practice is another question.
Never, but I once got a significant detour assigned because of airspace capacity.
achimha wrote:
“all aircraft on the frequency, hold at your present position”
I wonder if, considering the different speeds and precision in flying these holds, this might not provoke some airproxes.
I had the SUGOL hold inbound EHAM. And the DIK hold at ELLX.
But both are on the STARs so not really enroute.
I once had and several times a hold when approaching an airport for landing.
I’d think an enroute hold is for something REALLY unexpected on the part of the ATC, otherwise they could just slow us down to holding speed along the route, couldn’t they?
I had a hold over KOK for 38mins as my FP got lost in translation and Brussels Radar had to coordinate with Germany. VFR!
I think in the US ATC sometimes use this for flow-control, mainly into airports / areas affected by severe wx.
