Golf-mike-mike......thanks for your sensible posts on this. To be honest I have now stopped posting as I have said before despite my 40 years in ATC and the last twenty working my day job at Scottish Info it appears you will always get guys out there that seem to know better despite what those with the inside knowledge have. However I would still expect any aircraft I am working to make an initial distress call on my Scottish info frequency....and why? Well as I am already working that traffic I already have most of the details before the Mayday is recieved i.e. Callsign, aircraft type and if flying over the water SOB as thats something I always as pilots for as they coast out......
My own actions on hearing the Pan or Mayday will to be acknowledge, then ask if able to Squawk 7700 ( this will then alert D&D if the contact visible on their radar) also at the same time that I am speaking to the aircraft in distress I will have called D&D and be passing all the details that I know at that stage.....then either D&D depending on the incident will give assistance in anyway needed, either through me or if necessary will offer the aircraft a discrete frequency to work on.
As I said before,the last 4 Mayday's I have worked,D&D through RCC had a helicopter airborne and on the way to their last position despite the aircraft managing to either divert safely to a airfield close by or indeed make a forced field landing.
Last edited by fisbangwollop; 25th Jul 2013 at 16:54.