Well our experience is much different to your friends. Re read his post, but instead of declaring a Mayday with 45 min of fuel on board, change his call to “ Minimum fuel last hold time 0015” for example. ATC, being aware of the procedure now know if they don't get him out of the hold by time 0015, he will be declaring a Mayday . They then rearrange the flow to prevent that from happening, and by doing so, your friend does not need to make the Mayday call as his reserve is intact . Now consider while being vectored for approach they slow him down early, or add extra miles he was not expecting, if this will cause him to land with less than final reserve, he would then make his Mayday call, and be turned in earlier.
Would you agree that by following the procedure as it is expected to be done, he has not confused ATC, nor has he put any flight following the procedure correctly in jeopardy. When you make the Mayday call ATC are expecting that if you were to commense the approach right now, you will be landing with something less than your reserve. They don't think you are making a preemptive Mayday call for 15 min time.
His condescending to attitude towards ATC in his post is out of order, as it is he that has caused the problem. They were just trying to do their job and help him.
As an aside, the previous procedure was exactly the same, except a PAN call was made instead of the Min Fuel call .It was explained, at the time, as some states don't acknowledge or understand PAN calls, Min Fuel will be used instead to prevent any confusion. It would seem seem this is not the case.
Last edited by donpizmeov; 20th Jun 2018 at 12:24.