PilotEdge Forums

Is there a best frequency to use for uncontrolled airports? What got me thinking about this is I've always used the published airport CTAF but see on the recordings archive that there's some times a 122.8 recording but not others freqs. Since PE sometimes simplifies some frequencies as well as since now have range of pilot to pilot, thinking I should be using just 122.8 for CTAF and 123.45 for pilot to pilot chat. It would be nice though if there was a set way PE set or highly preferred method of either always on 122.8 for uncontrolled fields or the airports listed CTAF.

If an airport doesn't have a published CTAF, you should use Multicom on 122.90. For air to air communications use 122.75. 123.45 is reserved for other uses, and shouldn't be used, but pilots still use it as an unofficial air to air since it's easy to remember.

I'm not sure about the recordings though.

Scott, I think you're addressing the question of which freq to use at fields which don't have a published CTAF. The first post is actually asking if we can standardize on ONE CTAF freq for all non-towered airports as a PE-wide rule.

I can't think of a good reason, or any real benefit, to ignoring the published CTAF at the non-towered airports. It's negative training, and will be difficult change to communicate to everyone. We no longer support CTAF recordings at non-towered fields as the limited recorder slots are all being used for other frequencies at this point.

Pilots should do EXACTLY that they'd do in real life, which is to reference the relevant chart to obtain the published CTAF. If one isn't published, then the standard procedures in the AIM would apply, which include the use of multicom 122.90.

There's no wiggle room on this one, we'd like pilots to be able to use the published frequencies, and I don't see a benefit to straying from those real world procedures.

Thanks Keith that was the answer I was looking for and agree about using RW freq to be the best option.