I'm glad it's not in our QRH.

 

FAA 65 para. 5-2-7.a:
************************
5-2-7. EMERGENCY CODE ASSIGNMENT
Assign codes to emergency aircraft as follows:
a. Code 7700 when the pilot declares an emergency and the aircraft is not radar identified.
*************************
so I guess it is not enforced if ID.d

 

Funny thing. I had a rapid decompression and squawked 7700 per company procedures after verbally declaring an emergency. ATC promptly told me to return to my previous IFF. Maybe it depends who's watching the scope or who's looking over their shoulder...

 

To which your response was "sorry, can't remember it."

When I was flight instructing, I had a transmitter get stuck opening and closing rapidly which blanked out all the radios despite efforts to keep it from doing so- turned out to be the student's defective set of headphones. I got to squawk 7600, waggle the wings, and get light gun signals!

 

I think when it takes sixty years to contemplate science-based rest rules, and an act of congress to require an ATP, a certain regulatory agency looks for every piddly-diddly little chance to "prove" they are "advancing" safety.

 

TonyWilliams can correct me if I'm wrong, but if an aircraft is radar identified and proceeds to squawk 7700, the data tag will drop off and will be replaced with an emergency tag.

I'd much rather be talking to the controller, and him being able to see my callsign on the data tag. 7700 can wait for either if the controller tells me to, or if we got lost in a handoff, not talking to any controllers yet, etc.

 

And taking the question to a point that approaches the absurd, assuming we DO need to squak 7700, do we also need to immediately switch to a guard frequency?

 

Did the FAA pursue certificate action or did they ask questions during the investigation? There is a difference.

Based on what little information you have provided about the situation the Fed's issue was with the fact that the crew missed something on the checklist. It seems to me that is fair game to investigate. Questions I have are why did they miss it? Did it affect safety? Can the procedure be written better? Trained better? Executed better? I'm guessing the FAA investigators had similar questions and probably asked them. When the story was told later it may have become "the FAA threatened certificate action."

I could be completely wrong about what happened but you haven't provided enough information to actually know what happened. Only in your follow up post did you even mention that squawking 7700 was in your emergency descent checklist. It's not in my company's checklist which leads me to believe it's not the action of squawking 7700 which drew the FAA investigator's ire but the fact that the crew didn't do a checklist item.

 

From the Airman's Information Manual/2/9/12

6-2-2. Transponder Emergency Operation

a. When a distress or urgency condition is encountered, the pilot of an aircraft with a coded radar beacon transponder, who desires to alert a ground radar facility, should squawk Mode 3/A, Code 7700/Emergency and Mode C altitude reporting and then immediately establish communications with the ATC facility.

b. Radar facilities are equipped so that Code 7700 normally triggers an alarm or special indicator at all control positions. Pilots should understand that they might not be within a radar coverage area. Therefore, they should continue squawking Code 7700 and establish radio communications as soon as possible.

 

Man, your first post was clu---tch! You will have a long and prosperous APC career, I see moderator in your future.

As for the emergency, nothing rustles my jimmies more than Monday morning quarterbacking a crew in distress! And just when I thought the ol' FAA wasn't as draconian as they once were!