xrayalpha I don't have a problem with microlights at all unless they cut me up on finals as they are apt to do and start bleeting but you were abusing finals if you have words with them.
My comments were more on the ethos of the instructors when they are teaching.
When we teach fixed wing nav ex's talking to scottish is part and parcel of the exercise along with a practise pan at some point.
I can fully understand down south why folk might not want to talk to London info who are saturated much of the time on nice days and to be honest you have plenty of alternatives from LARS units etc.
But come on Scottish info!!
Never heard a cross word out of them yet.
Always make things easy for students and don't put them under pressure.
No other agencys which would give you a better service (ie radar etc)
If you start your students talking to them from the start they will be comfy always using them.
Like it or not swopiv microlights not talking to scottish is a problem for the rest of us. The more people use the service the better picture all of us have of what traffic is going to effect us. And its all very well saying "but I listen in what more do you want". Most arn't like yourself speaking to info.
And its a particular problem around that perth area you can be told nothing known affect and it turns out there are 10 plus microlights bimbling around all of them.
Flying in the local area is a bit different, and for trips round the borders, most will just stay on microlight frequency.
Coming away from this accident and the fact hillwalkers found them. If scottish knows what they are doing and over due action is called either by other aircraft getting there or by friends and family calling the police at least the MRT have got a smaller search area to concentrate on. No it proberly wouldn't affect the out come of any incident. But at least your not putting the MRT at risk searching at night through vast tracks of land to try and find out if they are alive. Not to mention the cost of rescue helicopters etc.
Another fact which people might like to take into consideration is the state of your remains for your family. The longer you are out there the more scavengers will cut down the amount of bio mass for the coffin and more than likey your loved ones won't be seeing you again because your tongue,lips and eyes are the choice bits, just look at any sheep carcasses in the hills. So the less time until the MRT find you the less stress your family comes under never mind having to have a sealed lid on your coffin.
As xrayalpha rightly says microlighting is become more and more popular and the amount of it means that if it doesn't join in with the rest of us it causes a major safety risk.
I expect in the not so distant future there will be more microlight movements in the scottish FIR than spam cans. Habits need to be changed.
O and instead of reporting back to the group just everyone stay on scottish and one person book in as a formation. At least the the DF trickery can work if someone sends out a mayday if its fitted on scottish info freq (is it FBW?)
And to add i have never filed a VFR plan plan in my puff waste of time. But I do give info a shout if I am low enough and keep them updated if I change my routing.
Apart from anything else the more we use the service the more ammuntion the service has if the bean counters start talking about reducing it with an excuse due to lack of use.