Stateside on route freq

[TeePeeCreeper]

Hi all,

I found myself flying down low, VFR in uncontrolled airspace stateside today. (A bit of a change as I am always on an IFR plan and up in the flight levels!)

Slightly puzzled, I enquired with Cleveland approach what frequency I should be monitoring on COM 2 as they were providing on route flight following for me.

I was a bit shocked when at first they didn’t know what I was asking them and then was informed that there really isn’t an en route frequency. An American Airlines crew member chimed in and said that GA stateside is alive and well without radios ( )but that back when he was in the military they would typically monitor 123.45...

Got home and called up murica’ FSS and spoke to the same kind briefer who had given me some tips as to how to avoid pop up TFR’s and whatnot last night.

He too was “puzzled”. Nice guy though and told me he’d ask some friends and review the American version of the AIM and call me back if he found a reference.

Does anyone here know the answer to this question?

All the best,
TPC

[rookiepilot]

There is not a common enroute frequency in the US to my knowledge, akeen to Canadas 126.70. I could be mistaken though.

[fish4life]

122.8

[nbinont]

rookiepilot is correct. There is no official common en-route frequency in the US (though the FAA reserves 123.75 for fixed wing air-to-air so you know there isn't a ground station on it. Ironically you probably won't find many planes on it either.). The only common frequencies they have are frequencies around airports (UNICOM or MULTICOM). See the US AIM section 4-1-11 https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/publica ... ion_1.html . Some specific areas may have a charted common frequency - read your sectional (US equivalent to the VNC).

Away from the airport: use your eyeballs, get flight following, and/or get a ADSB receiver for traffic.

It's initially a bit disconcerting not having a common frequency, but one could argue that there's enough traffic in many places in the US that the common frequency would be hopelessly congested to the point that it would be less useful.

[Blakey]

Creeper,

You just had to ask an old guy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_watch

[TeePeeCreeper]

Creeper,

You just had to ask an old guy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_watch

Hi Blakey,

Trust you are well and keeping busy my friend!

So is 122.0 still being commonly used? That’s not the impression I got from the link you provided...

(I’ll be driving from the GTA to YOW around Easter will send you an email and see if you are around!)

[C-GGGQ]

As far as I know, flight watch is rarely monitored by pilots and basically only used for making pireps. Seems to always come up on lists of "things you might not be aware of" or "things every GA pilot should practice" etc. So I'm guessing it's used so little it's a problem.

[whiskey jack]

For VFR the common practice is to monitor and broadcast on the area CTAF (122.8, 122.9 etc) which usually cover multiple uncontrolled airports in an area.

[nbinont]

Just browsing some more FAA publications and it appears there is an "en-route" frequency listed in the "chart supplement US" (all are available here: https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/flight_ ... directory/ ). Taking a look at one in particular ( https://aeronav.faa.gov/Upload_313-d/su ... 190228.pdf ) we note the following entry in the AFD legend, page 24, item 27(communications):

Civil Communications Frequencies–Civil communications frequencies used in the FSS air/ground system are operated on 122.0, 122.2, 123.6; emergency 121.5; plus receive–only on 122.1.
a. 122.0 is assigned as the Enroute Flight Advisory Service frequency at selected FSS RADIO outlets.
b. 122.2 is assigned as a common enroute frequency.
c. 123.6 is assigned as the airport advisory frequency at select non–tower locations. At airports with a tower, FSS may provide airport advisories on the tower frequency when tower is closed.
d. 122.1 is the primary receive–only frequency at VOR's.
e. Some FSS's are assigned 50 kHz frequencies in the 122–126 MHz band (eg. 122.45). Pilots using the FSS A/G system
should refer to this directory or appropriate charts to determine frequencies available at the FSS or remoted facility through which they wish to communicate.
Emergency frequency 121.5 and 243.0 are available at all Flight Service Stations, most Towers, Approach Control and RADAR facilities.
Frequencies published followed by the letter “T” or “R”, indicate that the facility will only transmit or receive respectively on that frequency. All radio aids to navigation (NAVAID) frequencies are transmit only. In cases where communications frequencies are annotated with (R) or (E), (R) indicates Radar Capability and (E) indicates Emergency Frequency.

So maybe 122.2 is the intended frequency? I don't think it's routinely used like the 126.7 we're used to.

[broken_slinky]

I've listened to 122.2 and 122.8 in the US. 122.8 was the standard Unicom frequency for airports. Still used but seemed like the majority of calls were plane to plane. 122.2 was not as busy but seemed to be more positional reports than plane to plane calls.
If not on flight following, I tend to tune into the approach or tower frequencies of the nearest airport. They tend to give the best situational awareness. For how little trouble it is to pick up flight following in the US, that's the best option to know someone's watching out for you.

[digits_]

Why would you need an enroute frequency when you are on flight following? Flight following is like a super deluxe version of a Canadian en route frequency.

[5x5]

Maybe no common frequency is their solution to getting rid of the exasperating annoyance of ACTPLA!

Seriously though, they have way more aircraft flying to way more airports and without a common enroute frequency there's not carnage in the skies. Is it possible that a congested common frequency isn't all that much of an aid to safety?

[Blakey]

Hi Blakey,

Trust you are well and keeping busy my friend!

So is 122.0 still being commonly used? That’s not the impression I got from the link you provided...

(I’ll be driving from the GTA to YOW around Easter will send you an email and see if you are around!)
[/quote]

As far as I am aware of, 122.0 is no longer a common freq but Flight Watch is still on the job. I have not seen the site that nbinont found so perhaps 122.2 is the best choice. A common freq that nobody is aware of has to be of limited value though!

I would enjoy meeting for a coffee or for lunch.

[Roadrunnersmother]

Position reports aren't required on 126.7
So tired of hearing them. Conflicting traffic blah blah blah

[elainemorrison]

In the recent FAA AIM 2024 (as people already noted 4-1-9...4-1-11) it states the multicom at airports with nothing listed is 122.9 and the common air-to-air for private aircraft is 122.75. Many close enough to the local class G airport would choose that as their monitor frequency. For eg, the map lists the San Juan Islands have a common frequency in their "vicinity" which is their local airports' frequency. Pilots also use handheld detection systems to silently notice and avoid other nearby aircraft without a word with anyone.

[Cessna 180]

I suggest asking any conflicting traffic to please advise on the approach control frequency.

But for real there is no widely used "en route" frequency. Get flight following or look out the window.