Originally Posted by
BuzzBox
Let me try to learn from YOUR wisdom. There's been a lot criticism about the use of "Mayday Fuel" to declare a fuel emergency. In your esteemed opinion, what words should a crew use to declare a fuel emergency and at what point should they be used?
I don’t have much wisdom. I merely absorbed the points made by those with experience when this was debated to death a couple of years ago.
The answer to your question is in the terms of your question. A fuel ‘emergency’ should be declared when it’s an ‘emergency’. The word emergency has a meaning. So does the word ‘mayday’.
But both of those words are now being used in the context of circumstances which are not, objectively, an emergency. It’s a case of the tail wagging the dog, because apparently we don’t have the wit or wisdom to design ATC procedures that will result in a heavy stuck in a stack being given priority due to calculated fuel being a minute short on landing, without the use of the word “MAYDAY”. Only in aviation…
And, in any event, the rules have (in Australia) been applied to
all Australian aircraft, including a Cessna 152 doing circuits, despite the circumstances giving rise to the bright idea being quite specific.