New use for Guard?

[ShyTorque]

Originally Posted by tired

"And yes, our company policy IS to listen out on 121.5. Our radio has a volume control though. Turn it left if required, legitimate use (or airline mistakes) get quieter, turn it right when it's all complete, no problem."
Exactly the same in my company, and our radios work the same as yours
Three points I would like to make though, M'lud -
1)Twice in the last few months I've experienced a call from ATC on box1 being blocked by a "practice pan" on box 2. Result - "say again " to ATC, (while turning the vol knob on box 2 to the left, as per your suggestion ). Certainly, by the law of averages, this will happen occassionally with a real emergency, and so be it, these things do happen. But IMHO it's unacceptable for it to ever happen for a practice emergency.
2)Turning that vol knob on box2 to the right again when it's all complete - yes, you just have to remember to do it! The 2nd time mentioned above we went all the way to Shannon before I remembered to do that - my mistake I know, but an easy one to make and it meant we weren't guarding 121.5 for nearly an hour. Again - if that happens due to a real emergency, then so be it, but for it to happen for a non-essential training scenario that could easily take place on another frequency is not acceptable.
3) If it hasn't happened already, Murphy dictates that one day an aeroplane with a real emergency will not be able to get a transmission in due to a "practice pan". Again, do you think that that's acceptable?
I'm not for a moment suggesting that practice pans be scrapped from the syllabus, all I'm suggesting is that they take place on another frequency. How about 131.5, to keep it as near realistic as possible? Simple enough for the CAA to Notam, and no training value lost.

Well, I've been in this game for just about 30 years, flown single pilot and multi crew. Practice Pans etc have always been part of the game on 121.5 (243.0 for me in my middle years). Somehow, I and thousands of others have always coped by careful use of the volume controls (don't turn it off completely, just down to an acceptable level so it becomes "second priority"). In my experience, more so recently, most interruputions on 121.5 are actually caused by careless use of the radios by airline pilots; i.e. having the wrong transmit button keyed when calling an agency. This results in two or three transmissions from the transgressor, followed by other calls from other pilots telling them they are guard. That won't change by putting practice calls across to another frequency.