AOPA Pilot Magazine - March 1958 - (Page 30)

by VICTOR J. KAYNE AOPA'a Air Ta r m Controt SptciaUtt Your Radio and YOU Uniform system, of illustrated by a question asked dmens of times daily: "How many channela do I need in my very high frequency (VHF) transmitter?" Unless his airplane is equipped with a "flying switchboard" containing all the frequencies the designer has been able to cram into it, no one seems to be immune. However, relief h on the way. i After more than a year's negotiation between the AOPA and the Civil Aeronautics Administration, an agreement has been reached on a uniform system of frequencies to be used by aircraft if they are to take advantage of the basic servieea provided visual (VFR) and instrument (IF'R) flights by the CAA. The schedules, which were arrived at through two separate plans submitted by AOPA, call for nine basic frequencies for VFR and an additional 16 for IFR flight. Instrument flights, of course, use VFR channels as required. Until this program is fully implemented, the pilot who thinks he "has everything" in the way of transmitter channels too often will learn to his sorrow that a frequency he has never heard of is being: used in some control zone. For instance, chuckles were being heard up and down the airways recently over the experience of a prominent radio manufacturing company executive who got tangled up i the n "frequency maze" and came out slightly punchy. T i manufacturer decided to inhs stall brand new equipment in his plane. He instructed his engineera to make sure that it could transmit on al of the available VHF channels. l When the installation was completed, he took off on a cross-country Sight confident that his new radio equipment could handle anything CAA 0ne of the moat annoying and frostratiiig problems facing general aviation today can best be VFR and IFR frequendes results from year's negothtWns between AOPA, CAA could dish out. A one point on the t flight he called an adjacent tower and requested radar service. Strictly routine, he thought. You can imagine hia chagrin when the tower came back and gave him a brand new frequency for radar serviceÑ frequency hia brand new equipment did not have. The new frequency program is designed to ease this problem in the future. A flyer may know beforehand exactly which channel he will use in getting radar service, or other basic communications and navigation aervices, in any part of the country. Early this year, AOPA asked the Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics (RTCA) for help in resolving problems caused by the aaaigtunent of frequencies without consideration of the channel capabilities of aircraft radio equipment. RTCA is a non-government group, made up of representatives of Federal agencies, radio manufacturers and m a government airspaw user groups. It provides a common meeting ground for study of aviation problems but has no actual authority to carry out its recommendations. It is supported by contributions from its membership. BTCA agreed that an urgent need existed for basic VFR and IFR programs which would enable planes with limited radio equipment to obtain service on the airways. AOPA submitted two plana, one for VFR operations and the other for IFR flight. Since CAA assent was needed in order to make any such plan operative, AOPA started negotiations with the Federal agency ftkich culminated in an agreement early this year. The CAA is responsible for assigning frequencies to the functions of the various Federal airways facilities. Frequencies making up the agreedupon, basic VEF plan for limited channel aircraft follow: Before further explaining the philosophy behind the plan for basic freTHE AOPA PILOT

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - March 1958

AOPA Pilot Magazine - March 1958
Contents
Calendar
Legally Speaking
Editorial
What About Airspace Use, Mr. Pyle?
10,000 Seconds Under the Hood
Flying Weather One Month Ahead
AOPA Weathercast
AOPA 185579
Air-Age Teenagers Give City a Lift
Your Radio and You
Operation Cost Cut
Put Your Fabric to the Test
Are You "Compasss Punchy?
Yankee Duster in Latin America
South American Challenge
I Lived Through a Graveyard Spiral
Safety Corner and Accident Report
On the Airways
Travel
What's New?
Classified Department

AOPA Pilot Magazine - March 1958

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