Can anyone tell me what this means
Foxy, it means that
the pilot made a poor job of describing his emergency to you.
Some emergencies are easy to describe; recent (last five years) ones I've had have included:
- 'We have a small electrical fire which has not gone out';
- 'We have total hydraulic failure and must land with flaps up and no spoilers, so the landing will be faster and longer than normal';
- 'We have shut down an engine and will not be able to go around below 500 feet' (this in an historic twin...);
- 'Rapid depressurisation, emergency descent, we are descending now FL100',
I've also suffered a variety of minor problems, and have always taken pains to describe them in sufficient detail to let the controller do his or her job, without baffling anyone with science.
A pilot saying that he has an 'engine torque setting problem' is unhelpful. At face value, assuming that the torque indication is u/s, I'm puzzled that this is worth mentioning. ITT, prop RPM, speed, fuel flow, etc, should be enough to set the power correctly. If the torque control was faulty, then saying, for example, 'I have lost control of the engine power' would be much clearer.
Foxy, your best course of action might be to ask for clarification, along the lines of 'Are you able to maintain height and speed?'; 'Will you make a normal landing?', etc. Sadly, some pilots flying what they regard to be 'posh' aircraft lose their common sense somewhat and forget the basics.
Hope this helps.
K-A KG