Mayday call from a military aircraft
 

how do you do a standard military mayday call? Do you transmit three times mayday followed by three times the aircraft call sign and other info?
I think there is a slight difference from the civilian way of transmitting a mayday call - that is that aircraft call sign is only transmitted once.
Can you please confirm this ?

It doesn't really matter what you say as long as you sound cool when the time comes.

Joking aside I've called it twice. Once for me and once for a wingman who was unable to transmit. I called Mayday three times followed by the call sign in full once. That probably isn't the official answer but as long as it is said clearly with any amplifying information (position, aircraft type etc as required) then you've done your job.

BV

I suppose how long one has to make the call has a lot to do with it.

We used the format of three Maydays followed by Aircraft Call Sign, location, nature of emergency, and actions or intended actions.

Sometimes it was a simple "Chalk 3...going down!".

Of course every formation in reception Range would be looking at their Chalk 3 aircraft wondering what the idiot was talking about....except for the one formation which had an aircraft in distress.

I was taught "Mayday, Mayday, callsign, Mayday", followed by pertinent details, though I don't think that is iaw the good yellow book.

The first time I was in a Mayday situation, in a Tiger Moth, we didn't have a radio....(!)

We were taught PATHASNIE IIRC the only essential being sufficient height and slow descent rate, especially if sending by morse.

With modern comms and the modern flash to bang time I suspect just a mayday will suffice with your position being deduced between waypoints and time.

Ditto,

"Is this a practice mayday or a real one?"

Thanks for the replies

A current formal military training manual provides the following instructions (on page 7-19 of the link, USN primary flight training): This parses into "MAYDAY! MAYDAY! MAYDAY! [Call sign], {what's wrong}, {location} {alt} {intentions} I find it of interest that they don't emphasize "time permitting" as the USN teaches "Aviate, Navigate, Communicate" but I do recall (all those years ago) teaching the "time permitting" bit for Mayday Calls when things are going wrong quickly rather than slowly. The example is obviously taken from the northern Florida training area ... Not sure if other military organizations use a different format.

Was taught on JATCC many moons ago, 'MAYDAYx3 callsign' our reply, Mayday callsign Squawk emergency your steer for location is, pass details when ready.

A US Army Huey Cobra was observed spinning wildly as it skidded down the runway in a most uncontrolled manner....to be asked by Tower....."Army 509 do you wish to declare an emergency?".

The reply in true US Army Warrant Officer Helicopter Pilot tone, wording and inflection was...."How in the Hell would I know....we ain't done crashing yet!".

Exact wording cleaned up quite a bit....but you get my point!

I once dealt with a "Practice Mayday, Practice Mayday, Practice Mayday, Yeovil Flag 01" ... handed over to Yeovilton who accepted it with great glee!!!

Had a few in years past and concur with the previous replies. Obviously it depends on the time available; my shortest was "Red 2 has been hit, might have to eject!"

Nice one was from a formation of Buccs(?) running in to break at Brawdy when the earth was cooling: - Sound of panting followed by: "Red 3 has just hit Red 2!!!" Followed by a slightly frustrated transmission from Red Ldr - " Oh Red 3, stop hitting Red 2!"

As I remember, the RAF use (as has been mentioned): Position and Time, Heading, Speed, Altitude, Nature of emergency and Endurance. Keep passing that info until successfully acknowledged.
Civvies use NIPLE: Nature of emergency, Intentions, Position, Level/heading, Endurance/POB. Additional info should include callsign and type of aircraft.
Being ex-Kipper fleet, I've passed a few Maydays and ended up on S&R as a result!

PingDit, I intentions IIRC, the whole when out of fuel or engines or icing and en route to somewhere very wet and cold.

And your's being Mayday Relay

MAYDAY will usually get attention, everything else is beneficial.

My first 'MAYDAY' came over 243.0 when I was doing Approach at RAF Strubby in 1965/66, a few months out of Shawbury. It was a simple call, from a TF-100 pilot who had ejected somewhere east of Linconshire over the wet stuff. What he actually said, on his PLB on 243.0 in a deep Southern US drawl as he drifted down in his parachute, was "This is Wiggins, is anybody there?" Those words were engraved on my brain to this day!

I had just had a Dominie depart up the east-bound climbing lane, so I just vectored him down the CADF trace I had received from 'Wiggins', liaised with D&D, and let the experts get on with it. Wiggins was saved by a helicopter, sadly his colleague wasn't.*

But I did use his example as a lead-in to using proper Emergency calls, instead of saying "Err, Eastern, err, we have a problem, err, looking for recovery" when I was a visiting lecturer from Eastern Radar at their Instrument School. I spent a lot of time trying to explain there was no charge for emergency services, and Pan or Mayday (with details) makes things run much more smoothly and safely.

So, in essence, on either 121.5 or 243.0, just give ATC as much info as you can, ideally in the right format, but WTF ... we will sort it out! That's what we were paid for.


* Some years later, Capt. Wiggins was serving at Lakenheath on F-111s when I was at Eastern. Sadly I never got to meet him.

Eject, Eject, Eject!

Then gone.

Never flew single seaters...

PN - Indeed they were Mayday Relays!

I recall the Jet Provost had a radio system in that pressing either transmit switch resulted in both pilots' microphones being live.

An ATCO at Linton told me how he once heard what was obviously a JP student calling: "MAYDAY, MAYDAY....Practice MAYDAY!
Followed immediately by a QFI's voice on the same transmission saying "You f***ing idiot!"

MPN, "er Houston, we have problem"