Lots of good reasoning going on.

Can I put forward another reason why we need an FWA?

If there's been a couple o' days bad weather and a Challenger's phone-in is at least a day overdue, we'll raise a flag in Control. First thing we have to do is check where that Challenger ought to be.

If the weather's been crap we'll assume they're not on their main route.

If they have provided a FWA, we don't have to guess a lot.

If they haven't, and we have to request an MRT search – as happened last year – and we don't have a clue where they might be, we look like prats and, worse, that Challenger could be in serious trouble for longer than would otherwise have been necessary.

I've done the Fords myself, of course, on numerous occasions but once it was knee-deep and getting touch and go – there were four of us and each member needed assistance from the other. The following burn was almost as bad, as has been mentioned above.

In practice, FWAs aren't precise – as happened in 2012, the weather can be so dire that even FWAs are out of bounds and folk have to sit tight until the storm's past or re-plan on the spot and get themselves out of trouble using their skills and experience. Thankfully the vast majority of Challengers have the commonsense to be able to use their skills and experience!

Be safe folks!