Yes we would hope they would, but i would be interested to know how many?
I can think of two recent ditching where 7700 was not selected. The trouble is that in the heat of the moment it may not be an automatic reaction. it is sometimes surprising how people react when they arent expecting an engine failure.
Peter wrote:
The airspace is Class G…
If you think from an ATC perspective when you have military jets in the area and other controlled traffic, it actually makes sense
It’s nice to make VFR traffic a little more predictable. Combined with two-way communications even better.
Fuji_Abound wrote:
When your engine quits, and assuming your navigation has been accurate, they have a pretty good idea where to haul you out of the briny
that would be my guess too…
I did not know the routes were mandatory for the CIs (also I know there are reporting points)
And I don’t know if it is very busy at sea, but for Corsica I’m pretty sure in the summer, this is busy both airborne and at sea and this helps managing SAR operations.
as for 7700, I’m sure everyone know (except maybe this guy flying to Florida and unable to read back) but I suppose a pilot is very busy when the engine quits especially over water, and then the 7700 or ELT preemptive actioning get overlooked.
PapaPapa wrote:
but I suppose a pilot is very busy when the engine quits especially over water, and then the 7700
Especially over water, as you have no chance to make a decent off-site landing and walk away, I would start with 7700 if the engines quits.
I’m not sure of the value of 7700 to be honest. Sure it lights up lots of radar screens, but is that of any use?
In most such cases, you’ll already be in contact with ATC, and have an assigned squwak code. A quick mayday call gets the controllers attention immediately, and they already know your code (hence where you are). What advantage is received by wasting time changing the code, which could be spend trying to disgnose the problem, restart the engine, or preparing for ditching?
I could see some value if you weren’t in touch with ATC, or didn’t have a unique code.
You may not be able to call ATC, especially London Info which gets the inside leg measurements, interspersed with “at this time” every 5 seconds, of many pilots in the south east UK 
Whereas a 7700 will get instant mega attention, UK and France, without you having to make any radio calls. The only thing which will get more attention would be 7500 but you might get fired on before the ditching 
Also with Mode C (which anyone doing serious flying like this should be radiating anyway) they will see your altitude going down at 1000fpm or whatever and it will be obvious what is going on.
Finally, crossing the Channel at only 2000ft is plain dumb. In terms of risk management, especially in a plane of unknown history / possibly dodgy maintenance / engine mismanagement by others, the right thing is to climb as high as possible, set it up for the cruise, all while over land, switch tanks, and then head across the water without touching anything.
Yes I would definitely do the engine failure actions before setting 7700… hmmm, how do I know this?
I still don’t get the point of that VFR route. However, it may have been on the CAA chart since 1945.
One day when, when our club used to be based at Dublin airport, I was returning to land.
I was in contact with Dublin but as I reached the edge of the zone, I still hadn’t received my clearance to enter the zone. The frequency wasn’t very busy so it wasn’t a case of being stepped on. I had only one radio, and came to the conclusion that I had a radio problem.
“No problem” I though! My transponder is still being interregated, (I coudl see the little green light flashing) and I can still hear. So I set 7600, and hoped to get a “If you can hear me, you are cleared to …..” type of message.
I got nothing. Just ignored. Initially I did some load shedding, so turned everything electrial off apart from the radio and transponder. But still ignored.
Turns out it was an electrical problem. My alternator had tripped out. Some load shedding and recycling the Alternator sovled the problem. I’ve often wondered if my squwak was just ignored (I think it was) or if they never received the transmittion (because of too little power).
My reason for believing that it was just ignored, was because one power was restored, they should have received the squwak. Having used an emergency code, I didn’t want to unset it without explaining to ATC why I’d set it and confiming that I should unset it now the the problem was resolved (but could reoccur). So they would have received it for at least 60 second without comment, and appeared to be largely unknown to them when I discussed it. So I’m not overly convinced by how much attention an emergency code gets.
Certainly I’d make a radio call in preference to setting it.
Ps. I see no point in the VFR route either. I’ve never flown along it, and ATC never mentioned it or suggest that I might like to use it.
You may not be able to call ATC
I should think that, if once the decision has been made to go to emergency mode, setting the transponder to 7700 and the comm’s to 121,5 is one action? Not very sure that 121,5 is always unobstructed, though, I’ve heard queer rumours on the matter but have never tuned into the frequency. Perhaps I should, one day.
In all seriousness I think there are some indicators on the chart. The route all but takes you the shortest distance between land points, avoid the airway and fly high. If you have been to the CIs before you will know they often ask you to report the Cap and then provide vectors through the zone. I would assume much like other VFR corridors it came about because it provided a quick visual indicator of a sensible route for VFR traffic to take and via the box provided on the chart clear guidance as to ALL the points to consider if flying the route.
As to height it is all very well for IFR traffic to accept a sensible level but that is not a luxury extended to VFR traffic and in the past not a luxury even extened to all IFR traffic if a descent was required in the zone which was previoulsy classified as class A if you recall.
Personally in addition to the squawk I would be ready to transmit over the radio my exact GPS position. If all else fails the most helpful information that can be provided to ships and rescue services in the vacinity is exactly this. While your eventual landing position may be different it will provide a pretty accurate idea of where to look. In the maritime world this is the information that will always be provided by the coastguard.
