Captain X
Who is John Galt?
- Joined
- Feb 10, 2002
- Posts
- 948
Well so are you!
Well so.
Well stop transmitting on guard.
Well why don't you?
Well you first.
No you first.
Seriously. Just stop already.
Since my airline monitors guard on a regular basis (I'm pretty sure we're all supposed to except in oceanic or deep non-radar/HF only environments) I hear an exchange similar to the one above basically every day of a pairing.
The tone in the voice of the aircraft letting the guy know they are transmitting on the guard frequency usually oozes with contempt -- and of course I'm sure that guy has NEVER made a mistake on the radio such as:
Calling Ops on Ground Freq.
Calling Ops on 121.5
Calling the Tower on the Passenger PA
Making the Pax PA on Center Freq.
One thing that is very common is for the responding aircraft to say "On GUARD!" and the original aircraft then proceeds with, "Yeah we got 87 wheelchairs (it's a Florida destination), 15 UM's, and please call the Marriot at 555-555-5555, and oh, is Bunny still working there?"
I believe that "on guard" sounds just close enough to "go ahead" and then it ends up congesting the frequency unnecessarily. So here's what I've found works:
1. Look at your audio panel and radio frequency before you transmit on a new frequency or on a standby radio.
2. Accept the fact mistakes are gonna happen and go easy on the folks. You're bound to make one eventually.
3. Say the frequency (e.g. "Aircraft transmitting you are on one-two-one-point-five") rather than just GUARD.
That way I can go about reading my Useless Today and only having to perk my ears up for the drama when I hear: "Aircraft approaching Prohibited Area P-56, this is the US Air Force..."
Well so.
Well stop transmitting on guard.
Well why don't you?
Well you first.
No you first.
Seriously. Just stop already.
Since my airline monitors guard on a regular basis (I'm pretty sure we're all supposed to except in oceanic or deep non-radar/HF only environments) I hear an exchange similar to the one above basically every day of a pairing.
The tone in the voice of the aircraft letting the guy know they are transmitting on the guard frequency usually oozes with contempt -- and of course I'm sure that guy has NEVER made a mistake on the radio such as:
Calling Ops on Ground Freq.
Calling Ops on 121.5
Calling the Tower on the Passenger PA
Making the Pax PA on Center Freq.
One thing that is very common is for the responding aircraft to say "On GUARD!" and the original aircraft then proceeds with, "Yeah we got 87 wheelchairs (it's a Florida destination), 15 UM's, and please call the Marriot at 555-555-5555, and oh, is Bunny still working there?"
I believe that "on guard" sounds just close enough to "go ahead" and then it ends up congesting the frequency unnecessarily. So here's what I've found works:
1. Look at your audio panel and radio frequency before you transmit on a new frequency or on a standby radio.
2. Accept the fact mistakes are gonna happen and go easy on the folks. You're bound to make one eventually.
3. Say the frequency (e.g. "Aircraft transmitting you are on one-two-one-point-five") rather than just GUARD.
That way I can go about reading my Useless Today and only having to perk my ears up for the drama when I hear: "Aircraft approaching Prohibited Area P-56, this is the US Air Force..."