OnCourse Software

There are a couple of points I would like to suggest for future development regarding a MAYDAY call. Firstly the phrase MAYDAY should be appended to the call sign. So, Speedbird 5856 would become "MAYDAY Speedbird 5856" or just "MAYDAY 5856". The other point is directing the a/c to an airport. Some time ago I had to declare an emergency as supper was nearly ready. I was flying at night and was directed to a very small French airstrip with no lights nor ATC. I know that a VC10 has a remarkable short field performance but this airstrip was too small even for fly to land on!
If the MAYDAY had to be made on 121.5 or 406mhz then would that not allow for a new list of hotkeys allowing the pilot to choose the best place to land? And then perhaps be directed to the appropriate frequency with the new callsign until after landing! This is how a real MAYDAY event is dealt with! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTyv8f-_8Mw
vololiberista

Yes I will look into expanding that feature in the future... although the 'mayday, mayday, mayday', IS correct and should be repeated three times

Thanks for the suggestions

dmarch wrote:

Yes I will look into expanding that feature in the future... although the 'mayday, mayday, mayday', IS correct and should be repeated three times

Thanks for the suggestions

Yeas certainly the initial call mayday, mayday, mayday' is correct. And, in fact in the UK if you get any part of the MAYDAY call incorrect during your RT exam it's a fail! And your dreams of becoming a pilot disappear!!!
vololiberista

vololiberista wrote:

Yeas certainly the initial call mayday, mayday, mayday' is correct. And, in fact in the UK if you get any part of the MAYDAY call incorrect during your RT exam it's a fail! And your dreams of becoming a pilot disappear!!!
vololiberista

You've used that "rt exam fail" joke more than once, I'm starting to get concerned that you really believe in it..

That aside, I agree the emergency functionality could use a little work, not so much worried about the phraseology.

JET 1 wrote:

You've used that "rt exam fail" joke more than once, I'm starting to get concerned that you really believe in it..

It's no joke at least it wasn't when I qualified in 1978 and as far as CAP393 goes it is still valid quote-

"33 (1) A person who, on the last occasion when he took a test for the purposes of articles
28, 29, 30 or 31 failed that test shall not be entitled to fly in the capacity for which that
test would have qualified him had he passed it."

That doesn't appear to be a joke to me!!!
vololiberista

It's not like you cant take the test again though, and I think that's the point that is being made by Jet 1.

That is correct Andy, they won't fail you for a lifetime

For vololiberista, I appreciate your experience, but I would not make such strong statements about phraseology if it's something you can't back up with data.

Prefixing "Mayday" to callsigns after the initial call is NOT officially required by standard phraseology, unless a state files a national difference to the ICAO standard (which I believe UK has not done). No one will fail his/her RT test if they follow standard phraseology.

Prefixing Mayday can be good practise in some cases, in some cases not, but I repeat it is NOT standard phraseology. Better stick to standard with PFE, as national differences can't be made, right?

Now, things may have been taught differently in 1978, I don't know. I did my ATPL theory including comms, RT and LP test in 2007.

There are plenty of similar discussions on the topic in Pprune forums if you want to have a look.

For reference on phraseology, check PANS OPS doc 4444 and Doc 3942 Manual of Radiotelephony.