Have you ever sent a mayday?
Very nearly - even keyed the PTT - before the engine spluttered back to life.
Hour building in CA north east of San Luis heading towards Yosemite there is a range of hills (felt like mountains). At 7500' which must've been 2000agl my engine stopped (c172). I will never forget that noise (or lack of) as long as I fly I'm sure. It's not like when the instructor pulls to idle as you do PFLs but you know it's there and you can still hear it.
First thought was that I needed new trousers. Second was maintain 65kts. Glance at Skydemon for glide range (amazing feature) to see if there were any airfields within range (of course there weren't). Turn downwind and towards lowering ground/valley. Full power, full rich, carb heat, still nothing. Keyed switch for mayday, noticed fuel selector not quite vertical on both, but slightly off towards right. Lined it up....said a little prayer.....after what felt like an hour but was probably just a few seconds the engine spluttered back to life.
The aircraft had been draining quicker from the left tank than the right so I had almost full right and about half in the left. I switched to right tank only. After about 30 mins it had evened out a bit so I switched back to both....or so I thought. The selector isn't so much one or the other but a graduation between the options. Turns out I'd not put it properly to both so after a couple of minutes using the fuel that was in the engine and lines the engine just quit.
Lesson learnt. New trousers purchased.