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On the Airbands …
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Which airline was it in late January who had a Captain spoken to sharply by Honolulu radio? Honolulu wanted his time over Arens, a reporting point, between Honolulu and Pago Pago, only to be told he wasn’t tracking by way of Arens! Thankfully he was the only traffic on Airway “Green-89”.
What went wrong one sunny afternoon at Bankstown, causing a few missed heartbeats? VH-India November Golf, on short final, after an approach for runway-centre from the 2FC visual reporting point. All of a sudden, a light aircraft cleared to runway breaks left, and breaks hard-a-starboard right across the tracks of the sleek Lear. Appears that VH-ING was on Tower 118. 1 Mhz, while the other aircraft was monitoring the training circuit tower frequency of 123. 6 Mhz. Bit too close boys! Still, appropriate action was taken at the right time, and a go-around was executed.
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Don’t be surprised if you’re listening on the HF bands to the Pacific network on 5638 or 8847 Khz to hear transmissions that don’t seem to fit in with the traffic for that area: 5638 is also a North Atlantic Track frequency, and 8847 is a South American continental frequency. Yes, while listening to Nadin and Auckland, you might also hear Concorde over the icy North Atlantic!
A VHF aircraft crash-beacon (V.S.B.) operating on 121. 5 Mhz really set the cat amongst the pigeons at Sydney and Bankstown on Friday, January 29! At 4. 10 p. m. , a distress phase was put into operation, seconds after the initial signals were heard. Various airliners and G.A. aircraft were assigned to monitoring tasks. At 4. 25 p. m. , all went quiet, but D. O. T. wasn’t rattled! They had already traced the source . . . a parked aircraft in a Camden hangar!
Unreliable reception east of Parkes on 128. 2 (VHF) for transcontinental west-bound aircraft and Sydney Control has caused ATC to use 118. 5 Mhz as an intermediate frequency between “Sydney Control” 131. 3 and 128. 2 Mhz. Transfer from “Departures” to 131. 3 is 5 minutes east of Katoomba NDB, with a change to 118. 5 between Katoomba and Parkes, and then to 128. 2 west of the Parkes VOA. VHF coverage ends at “Reola”, a reporting point located S29, E143 degrees.
Certainly is pleasant to hear the respectful manner in which radio-telephone transmissions, air-to-ground, are conducted between aircrew and ground stations, “Thank you sir” . . . “we would appreciate that sir” . . . Some of the olden-day captains probably wouldn’t agree with it, but it certainly does make for a very courteous service. The odd bit of wit is there too!
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