5milesbaby,
Yes it often does happen in Brest airspace, my last two were both on UM601. What annoys me is that having let me go out of range, they did not notice that I had gone until long after I should have been handed over to the next freq. If we had not have noticed that the volume of the other aircraft was getting quieter god knows how far we would have gone.
You say “the controller has no idea that you have run out of range” that seems like a big flaw in the system, anyway isn’t there a formula for VHF radio range (1.25 x Square root of altitude)? Surely a decent controller who works the same sector every day knows where his aircraft start to go out of range; he should have a better idea than the aircraft he works because we don’t know where his aerial is. It should be ATC not pilots who initiate freq changes on airways, otherwise we would be asking for freq changes at the notified points and that would really cheese everybody off.
Anyway, it is not always easy to notice that you have gone out of range, as you say controllers may be working more than one freq so you don’t always hear both sides of the R/T. Also the French often speak French to other aircraft so you don’t know which half you have heard. And of course if it is a long flight at the end of a long day and the calls are not for you, you simply don’t notice.
I still suspect that if they had scrambled a fighter to me I would have got much more of a bollocking than the controller, even though it was his mistake – and possibly the bill in the future!
S&L