Flying Boxes

It is irritating and potentially dangerous when AF Tankers are air refueling with immature guard police types saying stupid stuff. Not all crews required to monitor 121.5 are bored airline pilots flying point A to B!

Can you just give it a rest!

todd1200

It might also have something to do with ACARS. At my (regional) airline, Comm 2 used to always be on company frequency--when we got ACARS six or seven years ago, we switched Comm 2 to Guard and the number of pilot on 121.5 went up a by a few thousand overnight.

RadarColor

Hello?? Put 2 and 2 together! With regionals comes the immaturity for the most part.

doctorwho

Won't get into the whole idiotic/immature debate on Guard stuff, but BTB Channel 16 is NOT the same as Guard. It is the primary frequency used in the US (different channels in other parts of the world) that all ships are supposed to monitor and use to establish comms with each other and coordinate movement. If a prolonged conversation will occur, typically it is moved to another channel once comms established. Even with that, I recall hours and hours sitting in the Persian Gulf when the dreaded "Filipino Monkey" would start transmitting. If you've been there and heard it, you know what I'm talking about. If you haven't, it is too hard to explain. Suffice it to say that immature behavior by bored watch standers would clobber the channel. I think the Guard foolishness falls into the same category.

Speaking as someone who has spent over 30 years listening to Guard out of a speaker when on watch or flying, I can say that the foolishness on that freq seems to have picked up in recent years.

Chris Hansen

I am a regional pilot soon to make the jump to the big leagues. I have never seen anyone at my airline intentionally transmit on guard, or get mixed up in the immature behavior on guard.

At the end of the day, there are two people in every 121 cockpit. If I ever saw the guy next to me give a mock PA pretending to be Mesa/PSA/etc. he would receive an earful from me. Have I accidentally accepted a takeoff or landing clearance on guard? yes. Everyone has or will.

But the immature stuff can be stopped. There is no need for "guard police" just learn how to run your cockpit. If you see someone doing it or contemplating it, tell your flying partner that what he is doing is not only immature and childish, but also unsafe.

I say HE because after a decade of 121 flying, I have yet to hear a female pilot doing any of this garbage.

WhiteHammer

No because they do it on the normal frequencies. In the Middle East they will have full blown conversations. Oh, and don't even try to act like flying the AB with the automation off is hard, you still don't have to trim.

WhiteHammer

Isn't that why you turn guard off on the AR frequency?