Originally Posted by
Pander216
Despite all the arguments in favour of conducting practice pans; why the hell do you have to use an actual emergency frequency!? Is the CAA afraid people are unable to tune 121.5 in a real emergency?.
I suspect that there isn't the spectrum available to have full UK coverage of another single frequency until the new spacing requirements are forced in, plus the cost involved of having a duplicate triangulation ability and transmitters / receivers across the country. It also allows the triangulation system to be regularly tested.
If GA didn't do the practice pans, then commercial traffic would then start being asked to provide practice for the D&D team. Now you wouldn't want that would you? The actual emergency system would still need tested from time to time too, so you would be back to square one. The current system provides mutual benefit for both D&D and controllers.
How many GA aircraft can even reach FL370? I suggest that most practice pans will be done at under 5000 feet (what height is the triangulation effective from?) , but of course, if you are above them the range would still be large.