Diddley Dee,
You can shake your head all you want. Let me simply say that even if you did cycle between radar and D+D in the MASOR, you would be simply shaking your head at a max of 3 tracks.
There is a frequency where you can get all the practice you want - using RAF aircraft and not affecting either the civil or military distress frequencies.
There is also some very expensive sims available to you but under used I think.
What everyone who says this is necessary and one can turn off 121.50 if it is busy fails to see is that nearby ATC units can not turn off 121.50 and while the pilot can turn it off to avoid the distraction, the ATC unit can not and a distracted controller is just as bad as a distracted pilot during a busy period.
There is also the issue that pilots operating in quiet areas of the Brest FIR heading out over the pond should not have to turn off 121.50 because the frequency is being abused hundreds of miles away.
The D+D controller allows the practice pan to continue based on there being no emergencies in progress with them. Do they ask Scottish or all the other adjacent units first? - They should.
They should check with everyone likely to be affected and that would include the B747 miles away who has just started to pick up a real signal.
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MrBitsy,
Why not travel a bit and talk to various ATC units enroute for a service. The experience you gain would be more benificial than drilling holes in the sky within 10nm of base chatting "with real controllers" on 121.50.
I never train students to call 121.50 unless in a real emergency and no help available on the current frequency. That works for the 99.9% of pilots so why not the 0.1% that think practice pans are necessary.
If practice pans are such a good thing, and so necessary and every British PPL needs to do one can anyone explain why they can not be done in the Channel Islands?
Not available over the majority of the FIR and not permitted in other parts of airspace. Sounds like a "necessary only in certain areas" type of necessary to me!
Regards,
DFC