Last year we answered 1300+ practices and there is clear evidence that these procedures assist pilots when it does go wrong. Controllers also need to practice!
How many of those civil practice pans were IFR flights within controlled airspace?
How many of those civil practice pans simulated spomething other than "unsure of position" i.e. lost?
How many hours do your controllers spend in the simulator training where emergency scenarios can be run from start to end rather than the usual "I'm pretending to be lost" - "You are there" - "Thanks, bye" which we hear over and over on 121.5.
Aircraft over Dijon can hear both Milano and London on 121.5 - often at the same time not to mention USAF Europe. Does anyone expect that to be listened to?
121.5 is the reason for most "say again" calls while in the cruise i.e. we sit there for 20 minutes in the cruise and London Centre starts transmitting a long paragraph about a temporary sar-ops area and we miss the call to transfer frequency from one mid- French sector to another.
So I believe that the more ACC's call on 121.5 for various non-emergency reasons, the more that other aircraft will miss calls from other ACC's to change frequency.
The wholoe practice pan UK thing has to be taken in the same light as the paragraph from a major UK training organisation's ATPL manual for navigation which says:
Lost procedure
make sure that while lost you do not infringe any controlled airspace.
Finally;
(every time you transmit we can see exactly where you are, with associated transponder info.
Not true unfortunately but I suppose the admin fills in the time between feeding the fish and responding to people who can't navigate in class G airspace!!
