Air to Air Chat?
Good Evening!
I am planning a few flights with a few friends who are all pilots, we're hoping to get a few people in each plane and fly somewhere around the south-east of the UK. We weren't planning on flying in formation as not all of us have had training (and surprisingly we're not THAT stupid).
We would be keen to communicate with one another during the flight, as we won't be very far from one another, and may want to checkup on one another's progress if we can't see them.
To my amazement, however, having searched through PPRUNE, I have found old threads, all of which state that in the UK there is no such frequency... Is that still true in 2016? Is there no air to air 'chat' frequency available for licensed pilots to use whilst flying? How do formation pilots manage to chat to one another? Are they just close enough to see hand signals? Or is there an un-official channel that won't be frowned upon if used? How do you guys do it? Or have you just bought off-the-shelf talkie walkies and just use those in ad-hoc to normal plane VHF frequency?
Thanks!
Alex90