Originally Posted by fmgc
3 Greens, surley that is not a traiing fix but a "real" fix.
I think that everybody is overreacting to this, sometimes it is neccessary to turn 121.5 down for a few moments, then you turn it up again.
It's not rocket science.
Exactly. If calls on a secondary radio make a crew distracted enough for this to become the major issue some seem to think it is, it smacks of poor training, mis-management of radios or poor in-flight procedures. If a pilot turns down the volume of 121.5 a little for a while, so what? Surely a crew can cope with something as minor as that, for goodness' sake?
If a call on 121.5 is interfering with calls on the other radio, surely there is no flight safety issue with regard to "lost contact" because the aircraft is already in contact with ATC on the other box. It's a CRM issue, not a fault of the UK system.
I look upon the regular "distractions" on 121.5 (mainly inattentive airline pilots, exactly as the FODCOM says) as a positive thing - I know the radio is tuned and ready for use. If we turn the volume down if necessary - then we turn it up again, shortly afterwards.
BTW, What happened to "Select, Tune and Identify"?