Originally Posted by DeeCee
This is not about Vietnam and it is not about flying anywhere else other than the UK. This is about flying in cluttered airspace. I am amazed at the attitudes of some of the supposedly professional pilots. You are just sounding off in an ignorant fashion.
D & D themselves say that there is not a problem. What's the matter, can't you read?
Did you not learn about VHF range or how far away an aircraft at 35,000 has to be so as not to hear a transmission from another aircraft at 4000ft.
The practice pans interfere with aircraft and ground stations outside the UK.
AOPA's latest mag has an article describing how they represented two pilots who were brought to task by the CAA for infringing london's controlled airspace. To quote "Instructors - we're not teaching the use of 121.5 properly. It is not just for use in emergency".
Did that person not think that he should have said instructors were not teaching navigation properly and that pilots must keep sensible margins from the boundary of controlled airspace when planning a flight.
121.50 is most definitely the emergency frequency for use in emergency.
Originally Posted by DeeCee
If we sat on our butts all day & just handled actual emergencies you could go for weeks without talking to an ac. Would you trust me to get someone out of the poo having not dealt with any traffic for some considerable time..... No neither would I.
Thank God that the other 1000s of controllers in hundreds of FIRs throughout the world can be relied upon to go for months without an emergency and then be 100% trusted to help get someone out of the poo.
D+D need to get themselves a PC sim and some imaginative instructors who can simulate various scenarios more realistically than some C150 doing a practice pan that will only be brief and will only be done in VDF or radar coverage. Do you do practice pans with aircraft outside VDF and radar coverage?
Your point seems to say that lost of practice in fixing positions of light aircraft operating VFR is required. Heavy types with 400 pax and complicated emergencies and in need of special handling do not require any practice at all?
I do not teach the use of 121.50 other than as an emergency frequency used when no help is available on the current frequency.
Prior Planning Prevents P
ss Poor Performance and the reliance on 121.50 as a navigation crutch.
Regards,
DFC