This is old news to anyone who flies in the U.S.. The “guard” frequency 121.5 is full of pilots meowing at each other. I don’t know how it started, but it’s been going on as long as I’ve been flying. Yes, it’s stupid.
The other thing you hear a lot on that frequency is pilots mistakenly transmitting what they intended to be for ATC or sometimes the “hero announcement” for passengers. This is usually followed by some self-righteous pilot who NEVER makes mistakes saying, “You’re on guard.”
I have a friend who lost an engine in a bizjet, made the proper announcement on 121.5 and guess what the response was… Yep. It’s apparently reflexive for some of those guys.
“Ladies and gentleman, this is your captain speaking (in that calm, Chuck Yeager voice we all know). Welcome to Acme Airlines flight 1051 to Denver. We’ll be cruising at 33,000 feet today…”
Etc.
Fairly common mistake in some planes is to deliver that over a radio frequency rather than the PA system. I may, or may not, have done it myself once or twice. Don’t think I ever did it on guard, though I’ve heard it a few times. It’s funny when the whole announcement is done on a radio frequency, followed by ATC jokingly thanking the pilots for the info. Funny when it doesn’t interfere too badly, that is.
I want one; no practical purpose (I have an app on my phone that does the same thing).
I want the larger one; it’s freakin’ expensive & then there’s the issue of where would I put it.
Nevertheless, I want one
(LED display of ADS-B info of planes flying over/nearby you)
The animal noises on the radio began right after 9/11. As part of the hysteria about being intercepted, all airliners were directed to actively listen to Guard channel on their secondary or tertiary radio at all times when airborne. So they could hear if the military was trying to talk to them. That had not been the case previously except way out over the ocean.
What that led to was lots of people listening to a radio channel that substantially nobody talked on. By happenstance, this also more or less coincided with the ranks of airline pilots swelling with people who had not been raised through the military pilot ranks, where radio discipline and the sanctity of the Guard frequency was drummed into them. The newbies from the ranks of flight instructors and regional pilots and whatnot had none of that background.
And of course they were young and dumb and irreverent. Somehow meowing became a thing. Memes - everybdy’s a follower, and nobody is a leader.
As a certified Olde Farte at that time, this development pissed me off mightily. I never flew with anyone who did that, and I routinely asked my co-workers if they’d ever encountered anyone doing it. Nobody had. Good thing for the other guy’s career.
I strongly suspect it’s bizjet or RJ copilots under the age of 30. They’re a different breed of cat. They might be able to fly OK, but there’s a deep seated casual cynicism that stands between them and any form of professionalism. Certainly not all of them, but enough to keep guard full of cat-noises.
First, anyone who has gotten to the point of flying an RJ is a professional. At least in experience and ability, having passed all the checkrides. I’ll agree that meowing on Guard is stupid and I wouldn’t think well of a co-worker doing it, but it doesn’t doom them forever to amateur status.
Young and dumb though these offenders may be, I’ll take it over what we had when the oldsters were in charge back in the days before Crew Resource Management. In the 60s and 70s major airline accidents happened around once a month, often because of “professional”, military trained captains doing very stupid things. With that in mind, I’d say we have MORE professionalism today than we did then.
Again, not defending immaturity and poor radio discipline. But it’s minor in the grand scheme of things and I’ll take it over larger issues that we’ve seen historically.
Pilots are meant to monitor, or “guard” the emergency channel while using other frequencies for normal communications. That frequency is 121.5, which is universal and often referred to as “Guard”. If I lose communications with ATC for some reason I can find them on Guard, which they monitor too. This sometimes happens when traversing one ATC sector to another and missing the usual hand-off. It’s only happened to me once or twice, but I hear it on Guard fairly frequently.
It’s also used for aircraft in distress so we don’t have to go hunting for a specific ATC frequency. Airliners are almost always in communication with ATC, but other planes are not. Private pilots are taught from day one to use Guard if they’re in some sort of trouble.
So you could make the case that the meowing endangers pilots by potentially blocking the frequency, though I’m not aware of that actually happening.
