Meow

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I hate to be a stick in the mud, getting in the way of the folks who think it is funny to clutter up 121.5 with non-essential communications. That said, as a pilot for a major 121 airline, I find it extremely irritating to have vital communications from ATC blacked out by the folks who seem to think 121.5 is a joke. We are required to monitor 121.5 for a variety of safety reasons, and I find myself often having to turn it off, as more than once the chatter has interfered with my ability to hear an ATC transmission to us. Frequency changes, clearances to land, etc have been made unreadable by people playing games. As I said and you all know, we monitor guard for safety reasons, and that is compromised when we have to turn it off.

All I ask, is before you engage the mike switch on 121.5 to imitate a cat, dog or “guuuaaarrd”, or any other countless mundane item, please think about the very real possibility that you are blocking the ability for someone else to not receive an ATC clearance/instruction.

thanks, fly safe and rant off.

Scott
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Hey! FCC!!
We have a problem that will compromise the safety of human lives!

FCC: *crickets chirping*

Look! a nipple!

FCC: ZOMGWTFBBQ ASDLKSADJF:SDLKJAS:LKJ!!!!!!!
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You're on guard.
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This is why I work at b6. When you’re always flying a red eye, guard is quiet 🤫
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Quote: I hate to be a stick in the mud, getting in the way of the folks who think it is funny to clutter up 121.5 with non-essential communications. That said, as a pilot for a major 121 airline, I find it extremely irritating to have vital communications from ATC blacked out by the folks who seem to think 121.5 is a joke. We are required to monitor 121.5 for a variety of safety reasons, and I find myself often having to turn it off, as more than once the chatter has interfered with my ability to hear an ATC transmission to us. Frequency changes, clearances to land, etc have been made unreadable by people playing games. As I said and you all know, we monitor guard for safety reasons, and that is compromised when we have to turn it off.

All I ask, is before you engage the mike switch on 121.5 to imitate a cat, dog or “guuuaaarrd”, or any other countless mundane item, please think about the very real possibility that you are blocking the ability for someone else to not receive an ATC clearance/instruction.

thanks, fly safe and rant off.

Scott
Scott I agree with you and I am very discouraged by this information the airlines need to take care of this problem
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ASAP IT. Each and every time. With time, place, and if possible a recording of the voice of the perp.

Eventually the FAA will decide it’s less trouble just to have the FCC track a few perps down and permanently end their careers ‘pour encourager les autres’ (as the French say) than it is to keep dealing with the paperwork.

By the time word gets around about the second or third flight crew losing their careers, things on guard will quiet down considerably.
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May the first pilots to be furloughed are the meowing idiots on guard.
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Quote: ASAP IT. Each and every time. With time, place, and if possible a recording of the voice of the perp.

Eventually the FAA will decide it’s less trouble just to have the FCC track a few perps down and permanently end their careers ‘pour encourager les autres’ (as the French say) than it is to keep dealing with the paperwork.

By the time word gets around about the second or third flight crew losing their careers, things on guard will quiet down considerably.
I’d suggest not doing this. You’d trust a government agency to do this accurately?

It would start with a time stamp and all flight numbers in that sector’s frequency range, maybe farther.

At any given time an idiot is JXing up guard, there are dozens of certificate holders with hundreds of years of professional service flying in that sector.

I for one would not want TO TRUST the FCC, FAA, homeland security, or any government agency going through a roster of certificate numbers including mine to not mistakenly accuse me of this “egregious” crime. Pulling cockpit voice recorders for all the planes in the sector, it could go there too.

I’m not saying this doesn’t need to be addressed, but it starts with each other in the plane. When one idiot is doing it, another idiot is passively letting it happen. We can do better ourselves, and should hope the government doesn’t step in to “help”. I’m afraid ASAP would just accelerate the process, possibly hurting those following the rules and/or not catching actual violators.
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Quote: I’d suggest not doing this. You’d trust a government agency to do this accurately?

It would start with a time stamp and all flight numbers in that sector’s frequency range, maybe farther.

At any given time an idiot is JXing up guard, there are dozens of certificate holders with hundreds of years of professional service flying in that sector.

I for one would not want TO TRUST the FCC, FAA, homeland security, or any government agency going through a roster of certificate numbers including mine to not mistakenly accuse me of this “egregious” crime. Pulling cockpit voice recorders for all the planes in the sector, it could go there too.

I’m not saying this doesn’t need to be addressed, but it starts with each other in the plane. When one idiot is doing it, another idiot is passively letting it happen. We can do better ourselves, and should hope the government doesn’t step in to “help”. I’m afraid ASAP would just accelerate the process, possibly hurting those following the rules and/or not catching actual violators.
A simple voice analysis - comparing the offending transmissions to the thousands of samples we all have left on ATC tapes at towers and centers in any given year - can match the suspects to the recordings in a manner very much like facial recognition software can identify people. The issue is more one of getting people motivated to do it than any technical one.

And clearly, it would be preferable to simply get the other pilot in the cockpit to tell the idiot doing it to quit, but judging by results, the other pilot(s) either lack the balls and/or brains to do that themselves. If they won’t ultimately the government will.
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