Mayday Pilot, "Experienced"
 

Good Morning Ppruners,

The Early editions give a lurid tale about an experienced pilot giving out a " Mayday" call, and not realising it, whilst flying solo in the South of England, that call being picked up by the D&D people(121.50).Can this really be so, could an experienced pilot drop such a huge bollock, or could this guy be one of the sort that are frightened by RT and there use, is the allseeing eye of the D&D able to pick up Maydays calls that are off their frequency, or did PO Prune really tune into 121.5 for his practice?

Could have actually happened - with the usual journo' spice added.
I've experienced unintentional mayday transmissions from professional and non professional pilots going through their checklists when undergoing periodical flight checks, ie at the engine failure stage.
In one case, when a helicopter pilot was confronted with an autorotation during a circuit detail, he broadcast the mayday instead of saying the words without pressing the transmit switch. Before he'd rectified the mistake I'd hit the crash alarms and the outside services auto response buttons, a bit embarressing but it proved the system works and that no one's perfect.