UA Channel 9?
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UA Channel 9?
To UA pilots and/or cabin crew - I am UA prem exec (sa-gold) and fly a lot on UA. I enjoy listening to Channel 9 (ATC) but on longhaul flights across the atlantic this year it is never turned on?! Is there a reason for this? Does the pilot turn it on/off? The cabin crew? Or is it just not active anymore on 777s or 767s?
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I don't work for UA but one possible reason there is no activity on ch 9 is VHF freqs are not used very much on the N Atlantic or other overseas routes. Generally VHF 121.5 and 123.45 are monitored for air to air communications between other a/c and airlines contact ATC via HF freqs or CPDLC. IE you won't here much on VHF freqs if that is how UA's audio channel9 is wired.
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Switching it on/off is at the Captain's discretion. As mentioned above there are no communications on VHF over the North Atlantic. Furthermore, there are legal considerations for the Captain to take when outside the US/Canadian airspace. It can happen that the system is switched off outbound UK and that the Captain simply forgets to switch it on when reaching Canadian/US airspace. Happened to me once and I asked the cc to kindly ask the Captain (if he had no objections) to switch it on - which he duly did.
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One of the most interesting flights I ever had was UA 757 from Ohare to Tampa and I was on channel nine all the way (and back home to LHR a week later. 
)
It had everything, awesome powers of concentration, technical interest and even humour. Hearing ATC warn our aircraft of crossing traffic, right to left Charlie 130 at xxxxxft and then actually see the Hercules cross over the top of us was fascinating. All I would need for perfect in flight entertainment would be as UA channel 9, plus an option for the seat back display to show a selection of flight and navigation instruments. I would probably never be bored on an aeroplane again.
Roger.
)It had everything, awesome powers of concentration, technical interest and even humour. Hearing ATC warn our aircraft of crossing traffic, right to left Charlie 130 at xxxxxft and then actually see the Hercules cross over the top of us was fascinating. All I would need for perfect in flight entertainment would be as UA channel 9, plus an option for the seat back display to show a selection of flight and navigation instruments. I would probably never be bored on an aeroplane again.
Roger.
