Originally Posted by WorkingHard
Penko, can we please remember that if we wish to use statitics then LESS than 10% of ALL aircraft movements in the UK is commercial air transport and yet it accounts for 75% of all call on 121.50. What does that say about professionalism?
Not much, actually. It does say much about the design of radio control panels, though, and of operational practices. The most common mistake by airline pilots when it comes to 121.5 is transmitting company communications on this channel (as said earlier, this usually isn't half as distracting as the practice calls, since such mistakes are usually quickly discovered and corrected), and that's simply because guard monitoring and company communications are done with the same radio box, and because guard, company, ATIS, PA, intercom (cabin, ground crew), and ATC (perhaps even multiple VHF and HF channels simultaneously) are all controlled by the same radio panel with identical buttons for all these tasks.
Now how many PA calls do you think a PPL driver will commonly make during a flight? How many company calls? Cabin attendant calls via the intercom? How many HF clearances will he need to read back? How often will a PPL pilot operate on multiple frequencies simultaneously? Will he ever need to talk to a ground engineer by intercom? If I were you, I'd be a lot more careful before accusing others from comparing apples with oranges. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to conclude that if on average 0.1% of
all transmissions by
all pilots go wrong, this is obviously much more likely to happen to an airline pilot than a PPLer. That's got nothing to do with professionalism or training deficiencies, it's purely a matter of us (you too, I presume?) being human.
Mistakes are enough of a problem already, but that's what they are: mistakes.
Intentional misuse of the guard frequency is an altogether different story, and
there we can talk about professionalism, by PPL and professional pilots alike. I'd say asking other traffic to switch to a company channel or 123.45 doesn't fall into this category, but chattering over channel 121.5 directly surely does. Some general aviation areas are notorious for this kind of behaviour, but so are some airline pilots.
I won't call practice pan calls 'misuse' of the guard frequency, but I do think the system is flawed. Since this system only exists in the UK, perhaps it's time to take a look at how the rest of the world deals with the issue of assisting VFR traffic. Someone already mentioned Dutch Mil; I can only confirm that they do provide an excellent service, without the need to 'pollute' 121.5 with practice calls.
Changing well-established practices isn't easy, but the problem of aircrews being distracted by non-essential communications on guard is very real. Many cases of lost communications could have been prevented if pilots had not turned down the volume on their radio box because of such distractions. This
is a serious issue, and just asking pilots to be more vigilent when transmitting and to always listen out on guard is not going to solve the problem. Any real solutions that could help, such as designating a discrete frequency for practice pans, should be considered seriously.
Unfortunately, that FOD 2006/08 article does nothing to solve the issue, other than repeating the obvious:
3 Recommendation 3.1: Operators should ensure that their crews are reminded of the proper use of frequency 121.5 MHz.
Like, duh!