Hmm, looks like a pretty cool site, i'll have to check it out, i just bookmarked it.
@ lownslow - Thats a very intresting end of story, defenatly not the one i was expecting to read. I could have sworn that the general faa rule was, "you can vary from any FAR to the extent needed to properly assess your emergency", and in your case that was indeed, an emergency. My instructor always told me, if you lose a radio (i fly out of a towered airport), fly across the airport a few time above TPA, and rock your wings untill you see a light signal. IDK, if i wasn't too low on fuel though, i probably woulda went to the non towered airport in your situation, just to keep things quite, and regain my senses.