Something mysterious in Snowdon indeed!
Crab
It seems to me that there are a lot of people out there that are taking, in my opinion, a stupid risk by not listening to an internationally recognised frequency. There is a lot of talk about "real world", and a hint of bad feeling towards mil ops and procedures/principles.
If listening to 121.5 for the whole of an aviator's life means that they hear one distress call, and hence an immediate response is possible (as apose to delayed response ala overdue action) then that must be worth while?
There seems to be a lot of burying ones head in the sand? I know it is easy to preach the monitoring of victor guard if we already have a radio that does that, but come on guys, make our life easier - i would rather have to respond to a mayday in the general area of 'X', for instance, than have to search the whole route that the over due aircraft was believed to have taken.
As an example, about 2 years ago, a civvie was flying over Snowdon and suffered an engine failure, but he was in cloud at the time and descended into the mountains, IMC, was extremely lucky because he crash landed on a flat surface - he was very messed up but did manage to put a radio call out on guard. The boys in yellow were able to find him after 45 mins of searching - his life most definetely saved by a transmission on 121.5. I am not sure who picked up the 121.5 transmission - I think it was D & D, as the initial height was 6000'.
Good on you Crab for sticking to your guns.
spud