Anyone For Tea

I’m a great fan of London Information. Despite the name’s implication “London Information” is available all over the South of England and all over Wales. I remember the first time back from Alderney it was the first friendly voice after navigating across that great body of water called the Channel. It felt like a returning spitfire approaching the White Cliffs of Dover.

“London Information. Algie, here. Put the kettle on, looks like I’ll be back in time for afternoon tea”

“Glad to hear you’re back Algie. I’m putting the kettle on now.”

I recently had to use them flying to Caernarfon. Squawking 1177, which identifes you to all radar agencies as talking to London Information, which then allows them to get in touch with you. Talking to London also gives you a great insight on what else is going on in a huge area. From North Wales all the way to the south coast! At the end of the day it was good to hear that many pilots were “coasting in” – which was a phrase I had not heard before, meaning that they were crossing the coast at some location, such as Shoreham.

“G-ABCD, coasting in at Shoreham”

It sounded friendly. It sounded like they’d  put the cards in their spokes had cycled up to France and now they were just coasting in back down to good ‘ol blighty. That’s what it sounded like. And they were busy. Very busy. So busy that I didn’t notice that they couldn’t hear me when I tried to talk to them. Even though my radio was working before we left Caernarfon it was not working, or at least working intermittently by the time we were 10 minutes out. Luckily another useful transponder code 7600 came in useful. This alerted Distress and Diversion that somebody was flying an aeroplane with a failed radio. I could hear what was going on, but nobody could hear me. I could hear Swansea, talking about me. Discussing what type I might be a how fast I was and where I might be. Luckliy, after changing head-sets I finally fixed the communication problem and was able to assure Swansea that I was clear of their area. I was also able to pass on a message to D & D, who had found a 7600 and were trying to identify me. I’ve mentioned my visit to D & D in another article. Yet again I was grateful that somebody was looking out for me and that the system works.

So now all we need is a new transponder code to tell ATC when to put the tea on.

Airplane Mayday

Those three words, the prefix to an emergency radio call, are often practised both in the USA and the UK. Despite the fact that the ICAO language is English this is based on a French phrase (“Me” “aidez” – contracted to M’aidez – help me) and even though Britain and the USA share a common language root, and both are signatories to the ICAO, they have differences in the standards used for their Mayday calls. These are sufficiently different that you could easily fail an FAA flight test by following the UK standard phraseology!

I was taught to remember the Mayday call with the acronym “RIP Louis Hoy”. I’m not sure who Louis Hoy was (I think he was the son of the narrator of the audio tape (yes tape) that I listened to on the way to the airfield during my training).

R – Reason
I – Intention
P – Position
L – Level
H – Heading

Naturally you prefix all this with the the station being called, your call sign and Mayday Mayday Mayday. An optional item is the level of experience of the pilot. I was always told to use tyro, which means in-experienced, which I certainly was at the time. So a typical UK mayday call could go something like:

“Mayday mayday mayday. Farnborough radar, golf golf hotel echo lima, Cessna 172, engine rough running. Intend forced landing, four miles south of Woodley, 2,300 feet descending, heading 160 degrees. Two POB. Tyro”.

Other optional items include endurance. In the USA the mandatory include weather and fuel remaining in minutes! A typical FAA mayday call would therefore be:

“Mayday mayday mayday. Kissimee tower, Cessna six eight zero zero, 172. Engine rough running, 10km visibility. Intend forced landing, four miles south of Epcot, 2,300 feet descending, 180 minutes fuel remaining, heading 160 degrees, 2 POB.”

Optional items include: ELT status (sqwawking; off; damaged, Visible landmarks (e.g Micky Mouse’s ears), aircraft colour (or color) and emergency equipment on board.

You see the similarities but as usual there are those nagging differences as well. So remember to keep track of the minutes of fuel in the USA and the colour of your aircraft. In the UK remember what tyro means and above all that in a real emergency you only need “mayday, mayday, mayday” and everybody will jump to help you!