Its not necessarily the practice of the format of the transmission for a practice pan that we teach it....
...it's to get them used to the fact that they should not be afraid to ask for help.
Most students are very conscious about using the radio in general, let alone when 121.5 is tuned. The point is to get them over the fear of speaking on 121.5 so when it comes to a real emergency (or possible infringement!) they don't hesitate.
It is a practice that D&D positively encourage...we often get calls to make them for 'staff training' purposes... so I'm sorry if it disturbs people but I don't think I'll be stopping the practice any time soon.
Not heard any 'please abstain' cries from either D&D or NATS/CAA for the Olympics so a reference to this call would be a great help.
Thanks.