The main difference is that a lot of the soaring operations, clubs and
commercial operations in the US are based at public use airports and
there is general aviation traffic, commuter flights, sky diving clubs,
etc., using the same airport and frequency.Â* After getting out on
course, most gliders switch to a common frequency used mostly by
gliders, though I often hear military training flights there, as well.

To further muck up the waters, most uncontrolled airports in the USA use
one of a few frequencies as Unicom or Common Traffic Advisory Frequency
and, around Moriarty, there are at least three airports within line of
sight to gliders at altitude that use the same frequency.Â* And, if that
is not enough, one of those airports uses the same frequency for its
Automatic Terminal Information Service which, after a couple of mic
clicks or transmissions close together, will start broadcasting airport
weather information.

We don't have sky diving at Moriarty, but we do have a lot of general
aviation flights arriving, departing, practicing landings, fire bombers,
military helicopters, etc., and all are blended in with glider
operations, both the ABQ Soaring Club and Sundance Aviation, the
commercial operator.Â* On weekends, we'll have two or three tugs operating.

These are some of the reasons that hand signals are so useful at our
operations.

On 4/1/2018 3:07 AM, Martin Gregorie wrote:
On Sat, 31 Mar 2018 18:34:32 -0700, Tango Eight wrote:

We have radios in all of our aircraft. We simply prefer not to clutter
the air waves, there is plenty of that already.

Thats never a problem at my club because, like all the bigger UK clubs,
we have our own frequency. Is this not usual in the USA?

Not criticising: just curious.




--
Dan, 5J