WWW
I wasn't going to post again, but cannot resist pointing out a couple of major defects in your thinking.
What you are doing by cluttering up 121.5 is making hundreds of airliner pilots who can hear you from 250 mile radius reach down and deselect Guard
In case you haven't noticed, the UK rules provide for training fix, airlines who wish to operate in UK airspace must accept the rules in the same way that UK airlines operating abroad must comply locally. Sorry, but that is the way it is and part of being a professional in any field is working around constraints.
Secondly, what is the extra impact of a training fix versus a practice pan or a pan? All three occupy the frequency. What you are implying is that you and your fellow sky gods should judge the appropriateness of RT use in the UK and not the CAA. That's egotistical and unbalanced thinking.
And finally, please explain how one can see Bishops Stortford at 14KM when the vis in haze is 8km - I did mention the masking effect of weather in my earlier post, or did you not read it properly? If one can't see it, one can't visually identify it and one therefore can't confirm one's position against it - what is your problem understanding this concept? Over the featureless terrain near STN, haze can be problematic and there is a history of zone busts that the CAA considers may be due, at least in part, to the lack of surface features.
That doesn't mean I am lost, it means that every 30 seconds takes me nearly 1NM nearer to the STN zone and there are no local features to take a fix from to update my vfr log. Is it good airmanship to plough on and risk busting the zone and committing a crimninal offence as well as possibly affecting safety?
So I call 121.5, say "G-XXXX training fix, training fix, training fix" and they say "G-XXXX you are XX miles XXX of Bishops Stortford." We must have occupied the 121.5 frequency for all of 10-15 seconds. If I had done a PAN PAN PAN, I would have had to pass a lot more details, taking more time and possibly getting nearer to a zone bust, as well as cluttering the frequency for longer.
If D&D had said "no can do training fix", I would have orbited and then made a "PAN" call, since I would then have lost confidence in my ability to maintain positional awareness, i.e. the risk of becoming lost would have just escalated significantly.
I find that I am within 1/2 a mile of where my vfr chart/flight log says, well outside the zone, restart my stopwatch correct my WCA and proceed on course, legally, safely and with the minimum of fuss.
The guys at D&D said it was a good use of the training fix scheme, so what precisely is your problem with a pilot doing this ONCE in 11 years?
For your information -
- there was no LARS available in 1994 in that area
- the aircraft was a club hack with no navaids, not even an ADF and navaids were not on the PPL syllabus
- GPS was not widely available in 1994, I did not have one
Now tell me again HOW I was LYING in using a training fix?