Air to Air chat frequencies?

txflyer

txflyer

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Fly it like you STOL it ♦
What are some air to air frequencies we can use to talk to other aircraft we plan to catch up with on the way to OSH?

What do you pro's use?

I don't want to step on anyone... :dunno:





All dressed up and ready for the dance at OSH. :)
 
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Damn txflyer! That is a fine looking plane.
 
So is 123.45 used anywhere? I know that is not the correct air-to-air frequency but many people use it for that. It is a lot easier to remember.
 
vince said:
So is 123.45 used anywhere? I know that is not the correct air-to-air frequency but many people use it for that. It is a lot easier to remember.
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It's used quite frequently and eventually everyone doing so will be strung up and held out to dry come the revolution.
 
122.75 air to air,works great until a couple of pilots ,or a group run off at the mouth.
 
vince said:
So is 123.45 used anywhere? I know that is not the correct air-to-air frequency but many people use it for that. It is a lot easier to remember.
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123.45 is allocated to airplane manufacturers and to some trans-Atlantic sectors.

AIM Figure 4-1-3 lists air-to-air frequencies....122.75 is the only one listed for airplanes. "Easy to remember" is not an argument that the Federal Communications Commission accepts as a reason for its use by entities other than manufacturers and ATC.

Bob Gardner
 
In the arctic we used 123.45. Also used 127.77. In the lower 48 I hear people chatting on just about every CTAF.
 
123.45 is used for our unofficial (yet officially two separate alert areas) practice area (used by 10-12 flight schools) in my neck of the woods because the FCC/FAA wont work together to keep our airspace clean from terrorist (aka mid air magnets). With that said, I have heard too much BS chit chat going on for 20 or so minutes. Although using that freq is not legally ok for our use it is still safety related and important. Talking about what your wife wants to put on the walls in the new house is NOT OK or ramble on in spanish about some telenovuela you just HAVE to talk about is definitely not okay...we are still in America people, no matter what some think. Bottom line its still a radio frequency folks, keep the chit chat down for crying out loud.

Roger the rant is over, copy?
 
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We use 122.75 as primary for formation comms. Not as a "CHAT" frequency. Going to OSH (or any other event) you'll hear everbody discussing everything from what kind of wax they use on their spinners to where they are going to get the beer for the evening. It really makes the frequency unusble sometimes. I really wish the formation clinics would emphasize radio discipline. A dozen flights can use it effectively if everybody act professionally but it only takes two jerks to make it unusable for everyone else.

123.45 is used as inter plane comms in oceanic airspace. We use it as the back up when 122.75 is trashed.
 
Only an abundance of self-restraint has kept me from installing a special switch in my DIY audio panel to broadcast whatever sweet tunes I'm listening to over the currently selected VHF frequency for everybody else to enjoy.
 
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If you can't remember 122.75 you've no business being at the controls of an aircraft.
 
bobmrg said:
I have notified the FCC office in Wild Blue Yonder....they will be listening.

Bob Gardner
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I'll use my trusty metal landing calculator and keep it above 500' AGL over town Bob.

Can I get a mulligan? :lol:
 
Whatever freq. you use, please just don't be like the ****ats that were using 135.4 up that way the other week. FYI, 35.4 is ORD's ATIS, and they blocked it for about 10 minutes before realizing we were hollerin' at them to shut up.
 
HighFlyingA380 said:
Whatever freq. you use, please just don't be like the ****ats that were using 135.4 up that way the other week. FYI, 35.4 is ORD's ATIS, and they blocked it for about 10 minutes before realizing we were hollerin' at them to shut up.
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Wilco. That's why I asked. I don't want to be an asshat. :nonod:

asshat.jpg


..not that there's anything wrong with that ... :D
 
vince said:
So is 123.45 used anywhere? I know that is not the correct air-to-air frequency but many people use it for that. It is a lot easier to remember.
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Ask the pilot of the Coors SIlver Bullet. He got dinged $10K for repeatedly (after warnings) using that frequency for air to air.

Feel like being lucky, pilot? Well, DO YA??

Jim
 
davidm767 said:
123.45 is used for our unofficial (yet officially two separate alert areas) practice area (used by 10-12 flight schools) in my neck of the woods because the FCC/FAA wont work together to keep our airspace clean from terrorist (aka mid air magnets). With that said, I have heard too much BS chit chat going on for 20 or so minutes. Although using that freq is not legally ok for our use it is still safety related and important. Talking about what your wife wants to put on the walls in the new house is NOT OK or ramble on in spanish about some telenovuela you just HAVE to talk about is definitely not okay...we are still in America people, no matter what some think. Bottom line its still a radio frequency folks, keep the chit chat down for crying out loud.

Roger the rant is over, copy?
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Yeah. COpy that one day a bright yellow envelope will appear in your mailbox with an invitation to come in to court and talk about it?

Jim
 
Uncle!

We won't use 123.45.

I doubt if I'll catch my FB friend. He's taking off earlier than us and he's 90 miles North. But it would be nice to chat with other folks headed that way. We'll pick up FF, so it's hard to chat much anyway ... but if I hear other skywagon's, bird's of a feather like to flock together. :)
 
OSH is showing ~70% chance of T-storms Saturday, so that's not good ... :sad:
 
bobmrg said:
123.45 is allocated to airplane manufacturers and to some trans-Atlantic sectors.


Bob Gardner
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Not trying to be an a$$ hat but if you were in an E-AB would using 123.45 be kosher? How do "they" define manufacturer?

Dan
 
txflyer said:
What are some air to air frequencies we can use to talk to other aircraft we plan to catch up with on the way to OSH?

What do you pro's use?

I don't want to step on anyone... :dunno:





All dressed up and ready for the dance at OSH. :)
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By chance were you at the KDTO airshow this past June parked next to a Lancair 360?
 
Flying at night I've lost count of the number of cargo pilots on center telling their buddies, "Come up on fingers". Plenty of law breakers out there for POA to pillory.
 
ChemGuy said:
Not trying to be an a$$ hat but if you were in an E-AB would using 123.45 be kosher? How do "they" define manufacturer?

Dan
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It's assigned to one or two specific manufacturers. Think Boeing. Not manufacturers in general.
 
AggieMike88 said:
By chance were you at the KDTO airshow this past June parked next to a Lancair 360?
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No sir. Never been to DTO. Do I have a twin running around out there?

Off topic, but I'm assuming you own a salvage business. I've always thought that would be a great business. Growing up on a farm, I guess I'm a junk man at heart.

Young people on other forums are always wondering what they can do to get ahead, and I always tell them start a salvage yard. I ask them "have you ever seen one go out of business for any reason other than the owner died or he sold it?" Every salvage business I've watched, the guy started with little to nothing, and in a few years he has acres and acres of stuff. :)



sanford-and-son-memes-04-550x550.jpg
 
I've tuned 122.75 a lot on the way to Oshkosh, it's not an unusable frequency. Often grab pireps from those ahead of us. One time I ended up having a nice chat with the Ohio State Police aero unit who were out patrolling the interstates.
 
That's also why you use your 'covert' call sign, harder to track you down.

122.75 usually works, may be a little busy on the way to OSH though.
 
GEICO Airventure Tip Of The Day!

As you are flying to OSH monitor 122.75. As you get closer (100 miles or more) you should be able to hear what runways are in use, and if there are any delays. Take that time to review the procedures for those 2 particular runways. If you have time pass that information on as soon as you hear it so pilots behind you can here the same info. Just like announcing to the "air" at an uncontrolled airport people will be listening and will appreciate the heads up.

This freq gets busy during OSH so be polite and professional as many are listening. I could tell you GEICO stories for hours about what I have heard. :yes: :lol:
 
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davidm767 said:
123.45 is used for our unofficial (yet officially two separate alert areas) practice area (used by 10-12 flight schools) in my neck of the woods because the FCC/FAA wont work together to keep our airspace clean from terrorist (aka mid air magnets). With that said, I have heard too much BS chit chat going on for 20 or so minutes. Although using that freq is not legally ok for our use it is still safety related and important. Talking about what your wife wants to put on the walls in the new house is NOT OK or ramble on in spanish about some telenovuela you just HAVE to talk about is definitely not okay...we are still in America people, no matter what some think. Bottom line its still a radio frequency folks, keep the chit chat down for crying out loud.

Roger the rant is over, copy?
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Haha, all those Latinos from North Perry or Opa Locka are driving you nuts huh?
 
ChemGuy said:
Not trying to be an a$$ hat but if you were in an E-AB would using 123.45 be kosher? How do "they" define manufacturer?

Dan
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I went through that mill. Not only do you have to be a "manufacturer" but you have to convince a local frequency coordinator (like a designated pilot examiner, a person in the profession but not a real "FCC" employee) that you are in fact in the business of producing aircraft and/or appliances in the normal course of your business.

It took me nearly two years and a whole BUNCH of references and how and why I needed 123.4 and 123.45 for running antenna patterns and far field tests in aircraft to get the license for these two frequencies.

Actually to run two way tests it requires two licenses, one for the ground station and one for the aircraft station. The little piece of paper you carry as a part 91 aircraft does NOT carry with it these two frequencies. It is a completely separate license and a real bear to come by.

Now think about it. A manufacturer will use these frequencies for a flight test, perhaps autoloading real time data from aircraft test bed to ground. You are about an hour into the test when Billy Bob comes on the frequency chatting to Bubba about how good the pancakes are over at Lizzy Lou's flop house. You've just lost an hour's worth of data, an hour's worth of aircraft time, two hours worth of pilot/engineer time, and you get to do the whole thing over again hoping against hope that Billy and Bubba won't come back down through the area again while your test is going on.

It ain't a good thing.

Jim
 
sourdough44 said:
That's also why you use your 'covert' call sign, harder to track you down.
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You don't REALLY think that those who are in "the biz" can't rig up a simple direction finder to track you and yours, find out your real call sign when you switch back over to center frequency, and send your boss a simple "do it again and I'll sic the Feds on you" note?

Jim

.
 
vince said:
So is 123.45 used anywhere? I know that is not the correct air-to-air frequency but many people use it for that. It is a lot easier to remember.
Click to expand...
That is the air-to-air freq in the Oceanic Regions (like out over the Atlantic). It is otherwise assigned inside the Continental US (Boeing and Lockheed flight test, IIRC), and unauthorized use of it in the CONUS would violate FCC regulations. The authorized users often monitor it, and will let you know you don't belong there if they hear you.
 
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