Originally Posted by
chevvron
So what's the problem with declaring an emergency if you are genuinely short of fuel?
The question is different here . Why declare an emergency if i am not in emergency ? I would be in emergency if i was estimating that i would be landing with less than final reserve fuel (FRF) . As long as my current clearance allows me to land above my FRF then i am not in emergency and thus I avoid a lot of headache after i land ( i really don't think you can get away with not having over the authorities visiting you once you state mayday )
So as i said if you are running short of fuel but still estimating that you are landing with more fuel than your FRF , then you would be using ''minimum fuel" to tell to ATC that basically you have committed to land at a specific airport and any deviation from the existing clearance might lead to actually landing with less than FRF. Officially , stating 'minimum fuel' is not an emergency declaration.
I understand the rational of the UK system but it would make sense to be used in very busy terminal areas . I want to confirm that in a non busy area the declaration of "minimum fuel" could be dealt as in the rest of europe