Originally Posted by
Torquetalk
Why would you declare a mayday? Declaring a pan due fuel reserves will get controllers’ attention.
I've never heard or read or seen of anything that relates to "declaring a pan due fuel reserves". Phraseology exists for a reason and getting out of standard comms can get you in a lot of trouble quite quickly, particularly if flying in a country where English is not the native language and you don't speak the local language. There are (sadly) plenty of examples that demonstrate this.
Using a minimum fuel status will usually get a controller's attention as it is obvious that it is not frequently used and (in my experience) is likely to cause a sense of urgency. Others above have already been quite clear on how the regulation is intended and how to use it.
+1 on the overthinking. Don't assume a direct will be issued, you're already down on fuel. The thing doesn't fly too far without it and you're already (or will be) down to your last 30 mins, do you really want to push it that far? Something quite extraordinary has already happened to get you down to this point; I'd even go as far as declaring the emergency with a couple of minutes above my usual 30 if the situation might demand such a thing. It's fuel (and not too much of it left BTW), don't mess with it, follow the regulation, communicate as per the norm and, if necessary, err on the side of caution.
KRviator has pretty much summed it all up quite nicely, IMO