I've said this before, but here 'tis again: There is a parallel here in aviation.
In my years of flying as a private pilot, even in VFR (Visual Flight Rules) conditions, I made it a habit to stay in communication with the FAA controllers from departure to destination, Departure Control (Radar), enroute (ARTCC center controllers) for air traffic advisories, Approach Control, the whole nine yards. I felt it kept me a bit more vigilant, and "on track" on the airway(s), rather than look like a doofus, carelessly wandering about the sky, and of benefit to all participants in the system, whether IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) or VFR. I was rarely off my checkpoints by more than 30 seconds, so apparently it worked.
Radio traffic on the ATC frequencies can get quite busy at times (like at LAX, SFO, OAK, SJC, SMO, or that little beehive of aviation activity, VNY); 'tis often challenging to get a word in edgewise among all the radio traffic (it helps to be "in the loop" all the way, with handoffs from one controller to the next, not just a random "popup", and it certainly helps too to be up on the "lingo" and verbal shorthand used in ATC communications!).
Nevertheless, the cardinal rule is:
Bottom line: If you don't have the sled under control, you have no business takin' yer paws off the controls and wavin' yer arms! But that's just the opinion of an aircraft jockey that has never even planted his "corporeal sitting-down-apparatus" on the seat of a snowmobile!
In my years of flying as a private pilot, even in VFR (Visual Flight Rules) conditions, I made it a habit to stay in communication with the FAA controllers from departure to destination, Departure Control (Radar), enroute (ARTCC center controllers) for air traffic advisories, Approach Control, the whole nine yards. I felt it kept me a bit more vigilant, and "on track" on the airway(s), rather than look like a doofus, carelessly wandering about the sky, and of benefit to all participants in the system, whether IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) or VFR. I was rarely off my checkpoints by more than 30 seconds, so apparently it worked.
Radio traffic on the ATC frequencies can get quite busy at times (like at LAX, SFO, OAK, SJC, SMO, or that little beehive of aviation activity, VNY); 'tis often challenging to get a word in edgewise among all the radio traffic (it helps to be "in the loop" all the way, with handoffs from one controller to the next, not just a random "popup", and it certainly helps too to be up on the "lingo" and verbal shorthand used in ATC communications!).
Nevertheless, the cardinal rule is:
"Fly the aircraft first, then communicate as you are able!"
That would seem to have a parallel in snowmobiling:
"Maintain control of your sled first, then communicate as you are able!"
Although there are nominally supposed to be "official snowmobile hand signals" as shown at: http://www.snowmobilers.org/saferide...y/page_01.html, there appears to be little consistency in the hand signals actually observed on the trail(s), only adding to the confusion.
Bottom line: If you don't have the sled under control, you have no business takin' yer paws off the controls and wavin' yer arms! But that's just the opinion of an aircraft jockey that has never even planted his "corporeal sitting-down-apparatus" on the seat of a snowmobile!
