Happy Dog wrote:
Does it have to do with the attendant paperwork? Declaring an emergency
means a whole bunch of paperwork. The few times I've had a potentially
serious problem, ATC treated it as a potentially serious situation. In one
case it required rerouting landing airliner traffic. And, declaring an
emergency, for the pilot, means you can do pretty much anything you need to,
such as breaking regulations, to save the day. Isn't that what we're
taught?


Paperwork for who? I had a situation where I had rolled a T-34B and while I was
inverted, apparently got something stuck in the controls. The stick was jammed
partway to one side. It took a lot of effort on the stick along with mucho
rudder to keep the aircraft straight and level. I of course immediately
declared an emergency.

As it turned out, the landing was uneventful except for all the fire trucks that
followed me down the runway and taxiways. Thank God the stick was still stuck
when one of the emergency bigwigs tried it, because shortly after that the
obstruction amazingly disappeared after some manipulation.

I don't recall having to do any paperwork at all, ouside of a note to
maintenance suggesting they really go over the control system before anybody
else flew it.



--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN

VE