7700

[bigmountain]

Can anyone enlighten me as to the requirements of selecting 7700 in an emergency when in VHF contact and under positve radar control with ATC.

i.e you give out a "May day " call on the relevant frequency, is it essential to select 7700.

I have heard some very interesting statements both in favour of and against the selection of 7700 . both form ATc and other aviation professionals

regards

Bigmountain

[IRRenewal]

ENR 1.6.2 - SSR Operating Procedures

2 Special Purpose Codes

(a) Code 7700. To indicate an emergency condition, this code should be selected as soon as is practicable after declaring an emergency situation, and having due regard for the over-riding importance of controlling the aircraft and containing the emergency. However, if the aircraft is already tranmitting a discrete code and receiving an air traffic sevice, that code may be retained at discretion of either the pilot or the controller.

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There are 10 kinds of people. Those who understand binary and those who don't.

[DBate]

One advantage of setting 7700 is that controllers working on other sectors, i.e. on other frequencies, immediately see that there is an aircraft in distress.

That is of course only, if they have other (higher/lower) sectors displayed on their screen.

[Genghis the Engineer]

I'm not sure I'd stand on ceremony - if you've got a real emergency, you need people to know it ASAP - I'd squawk as soon as convenient (with the normal proviso - stay on top of the machine above everything else).

G

[JackOffallTrades]

I guess it is better to stick 7700 on than not. If you are in trouble it should be a good way of drawing attention.

Hopefully atc would vector everyone else away from you even if you didn`t manage to get a call in.