The average pilot will not have heard of "MATS Part 1", let alone read it! Why doesn't ATSSD (part of SRG) operate in the real world and merely state that in the UK you don't ident until you are instructed to do so, instead of expecting us mere mortals to have a clue about an ATC procedure that is apparently not generally published?
A fair point. But on the other hand, can you point me at where it says in any pilot documentation that pilots can ident whenever they feel like it or want to be helpful ??
Personally I have no problem with it .. although either they are going to have tell me they have the right code assigned by stating the numbers they are squawking, or I am going to have tell them what I want them on and get their readback. So it may not save a lot of RT anyway, depending on how they phrase their RT call.
Yes but who reads every NOTAM on every flight? I will hold my hands up and say that I sometimes don't and I am not the only one!
Failure to prepare is preparing for failure. If you have an incident which endangers other airspace users, or yourself, simply because you didn't brief appropriately, then I don't think the authorities would be very lenient. Quite a few people who have infringed Red Arrows TRAs for example had not read NOTAMs, but still picked up fines of several thousands of ££££. Given the availability of online briefing through the CAA and other bespoke software packages, freephone activity telephone lines, and FIS from ATC units, I don't have any sympathy with such 'professionals'.