DFC
I didnt tame down my last response, must have been the moderators & thats fair enough.
I can only speak from my own expierience as regards 121.5 being used improperly instead of correct navigational procedures.
Once in a while yes we will get someone calling for a training fix that we believe is not owning up to being lost. If that is the case we ask if they are lost and they usually spill the beans and we proceed with them accordingly. The huge majority of the training fixes we get are genuine training fixes.... How do I know, you can just tell.... by the way they comment on the accuracy (or not), by the way they say they are switching back to XXXX radar on 111.11 mhz or by the way the instructor comes on the freq to say TVM.... You can tell.
As for navigation training suffering, well again I can only speak from my own personal expierience. I have just completed my PPL and at no stage did any of my instructors steer me to using 121.5 as an aid to my poor nav. Instead with me, like every other student there, I went through class room sessions on Nav before airborne instruction and only when demonstrated a satisfactory level of navigation was I let loose. There was certainly no ethos of If you get a bit lost call 121.5. It was definately keep you logging up to date, fly accurately, turn back early if the wx looks like worsening etc etc.
Yes in the SE of England particularly there is a risk of airspace infringment, and the system is there to help prevent that when people make mistakes... like tx on 121.5 when they didnt mean to, or perhaps a Eirjet (Ryanair) landing at the wrong airport. We are all human & therefore will all make mistakes at some or other.
If I have been rude I apologise, however I really do not understand your attitude at all. You have a go at those using a facility that whether you like it or not, under the present setup is there to be used for training as well as for real. As I have stated on several occasions, yep I agree another freq would be better all round.... but there isnt one. So why you feel the need to continue berating anyone who uses 121.5 for training fixes or pracice pan calls ( or those on the other end of the call!) is beyond me.
Now your latest tack that TFs are just a means of getting away with poor nav by the student PPLs in the UK ...... That just sounds like a slur on students and instructors alike and has no basis whatsoever in fact! Feel free to offer me some evidence to the contrary.... It is these wild so called statement of "fact" that you post that I find so difficult to accept.
Regards
Diddley Dee
PS could you also state your figures for the "high number of airspace infringements" compared with other countries with simlair airspace congestion.