If you've never made a practice call on D&D (121.5MHz) or haven't done one for ages, it can be an education to try it and see what happens. You then feel less reticent about talking to them at the 'earliest' opportunity if you do need them. Whether you have done one before or not, they would welcome a few 'training fixes' at the moment if you are airborne, high enough, and have time, and doing it won't distract you from other tasks - if you can't remember how or what to say, see the hot news item on http://www.flyontrack.co.uk
(For those less familiar with doing it, if you are talking to another frequency just beforehand, make sure they know you are 'changing', and there's no reason why you shouldn't say you are going to 121.5 for a practice. Some ATC units will offer to check for you first to see if D&D are dealing with a real problem which would obviously be a bad time to practice!)
Training Fixes (England and Wales) - D&D 121.5 MHz
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FlyOnTrack
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mikehallam
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I have to say, Irv., that when last year I had my first ever need to call 121.5 I wasn't at all impressed with what happened.
There I was - nowhere strange, only in the SE of England - with an engine problem and luckily with what I knew was Parham gliding field in sight. They were active, but I had no idea of their frequency, nor time to start consulting a guide book ("fly the plane") so wanted urgently to warn them I was coming in regardless !
The nice 121.5 man had never heard of the field even after I was requested to repeat it in phonetic code, and not with standing that hadn't a clue [like me !] as to any generic gliding frequency.
With all that wasted chat I perforce made a sort of gliding downwind join and managed to follow their tug a/c in. Naturally no-one o the ground quite knew why I'd come but were helpful once they knew.
My conclusion was that unless you pre-plan such an emergency and fly at 10,000 ft to allow 121.5 to get their act together it was, at least then, an unneeded distraction & total waste of time.
mikehallam
There I was - nowhere strange, only in the SE of England - with an engine problem and luckily with what I knew was Parham gliding field in sight. They were active, but I had no idea of their frequency, nor time to start consulting a guide book ("fly the plane") so wanted urgently to warn them I was coming in regardless !
The nice 121.5 man had never heard of the field even after I was requested to repeat it in phonetic code, and not with standing that hadn't a clue [like me !] as to any generic gliding frequency.
With all that wasted chat I perforce made a sort of gliding downwind join and managed to follow their tug a/c in. Naturally no-one o the ground quite knew why I'd come but were helpful once they knew.
My conclusion was that unless you pre-plan such an emergency and fly at 10,000 ft to allow 121.5 to get their act together it was, at least then, an unneeded distraction & total waste of time.
mikehallam
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Nigel Ramsay
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In 25 years of flying I've had three forced landings, all due to fuel problems of one sort or another. In each case I've not spoken to anyone, preferring to concentrate on the job in hand.
The one time I WOULD want the service would be over water, and I suppose over somewhere bleak like the Highlands or Dartmoor.
As you say - if you are at 10,000 ft and have time, fine, but generally there isn't too much time to mess about from 2000' or thereabouts; Theory is fine but circumstances in a real situation rarely allow you to do it as taught.
AVIATE - NAVIGATE - COMMUNICATE - but ALWAYS fly the plane first and last!
The one time I WOULD want the service would be over water, and I suppose over somewhere bleak like the Highlands or Dartmoor.
As you say - if you are at 10,000 ft and have time, fine, but generally there isn't too much time to mess about from 2000' or thereabouts; Theory is fine but circumstances in a real situation rarely allow you to do it as taught.
AVIATE - NAVIGATE - COMMUNICATE - but ALWAYS fly the plane first and last!
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FlyOnTrack
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As many UK fly-for-fun pilots fly around at 2 - 3 thousand feet (amsl) it can be a problem in case of engine failure to have time to go to 121.5, and of course, a mayday is normally done on the frequency in use initially. Some of the worst 'stall spin' accidents are after a mechanical incident, so certainly the priority after an engine failure is to fly the aircraft safely down, but 'alert' if possible as well is a safety net that if the landing does go badly wrong, help is on the way.
The change of VFR squawk to 7000 from 4321 a few years ago was a nod to the problem you mention of not having time after a lower level engine failure to do a fantastic amount, an hence the 7700 is only one click away, which starts the whole help process in a split second whether you get a radio message off or not.
HOWEVER, every year, there a many pilots who have not had engine failures who are genuinely very very grateful for the existence of D&D and their location techniques, and this thread is really about that - helping them train to eventually help us with those incidents.
The change of VFR squawk to 7000 from 4321 a few years ago was a nod to the problem you mention of not having time after a lower level engine failure to do a fantastic amount, an hence the 7700 is only one click away, which starts the whole help process in a split second whether you get a radio message off or not.
HOWEVER, every year, there a many pilots who have not had engine failures who are genuinely very very grateful for the existence of D&D and their location techniques, and this thread is really about that - helping them train to eventually help us with those incidents.
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FlyOnTrack
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I've now added a pamphlet about D&D into both the hot news item and the links page on flyontrack - http://flyontrack.co.uk/content/links.asp - first subsection.
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Nigel Ramsay
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FlyOnTrack
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Everyone likes (positive) feedback so...
Let me pass on a big thanks to everyone who has helped from D&D.
D&D had requested more calls to help check equipment, and also help with their controller training and currency. They are particulary pleased with the results so far - for example, the average number of practice pans and training fixes in a MONTH is 150. On just the Monday-Friday of that first full week (ie: not even the weekend when more fly), they got 124 calls. And practical consequences? Well as long as various technical things, on the Tuesday, they had a controller who was being 'validated' for the role. Normally this takes them between 3 and 5 hours. It was all over in only 2 hours, because of the number of training fixes in that period.
So thanks to everyone who has already tried it, BUT remember this wasn't a one week wonder, they do need them all the time, so keep them coming when you have a minute. I've told them also if they can pre-notify a validation (to a particular day), I'm sure enough pilots would make an extra effort then.
Let me pass on a big thanks to everyone who has helped from D&D.
D&D had requested more calls to help check equipment, and also help with their controller training and currency. They are particulary pleased with the results so far - for example, the average number of practice pans and training fixes in a MONTH is 150. On just the Monday-Friday of that first full week (ie: not even the weekend when more fly), they got 124 calls. And practical consequences? Well as long as various technical things, on the Tuesday, they had a controller who was being 'validated' for the role. Normally this takes them between 3 and 5 hours. It was all over in only 2 hours, because of the number of training fixes in that period.
So thanks to everyone who has already tried it, BUT remember this wasn't a one week wonder, they do need them all the time, so keep them coming when you have a minute. I've told them also if they can pre-notify a validation (to a particular day), I'm sure enough pilots would make an extra effort then.