On Sat, 24 Feb 2007 20:02:47 -0800, BDS wrote
(in article ) :

"C J Campbell" wrote

There is some sort of myth that a pilot has to say the magic words
"declaring
an emergency" before it becomes an emergency in the eyes of either the FAA
or
the pilot or the law. There is no such requirement. What if the pilot
passes
out? Is it not an emergency just because the pilot doesn't say it is? When
you are low fuel and require special handling, it is an emergency, whether
anyone has actually 'declared' it or not. Same thing with fires, control
failures, or anything else that is an unplanned threat to life or property
that requires action to avoid it.

Excerpt from the USDOT FAA Air Traffic Bulletin:

"The Pilot/Controller Glossary describes EMERGENCY as "a distress or an
urgency condition." Aircraft instruments can individually or collectively
conspire to require pilots to consider declaring an emergency. Vacuum pump,
alternator/generator, and pilot/static systems often seem to be the
culprits. Loss of any of these systems should probably cause a prudent pilot
to consider declaring an emergency and to land as soon as practical.
However, pilots often hesitate to declare an emergency fearing the mythical
mountain of paperwork, government interviews, and ramp checks they have read
about in chat rooms and heard about in pilot lounges. Few, if any of us,
have ever met a pilot with firsthand knowledge of this paperwork
catastrophe, but most pilots believe it exists. Fortunately, FAA orders
allow controllers to handle a situation as though it were an emergency even
if the words "Mayday" or "Pan-Pan" are not used."

I think the idea is that if you want a guarantee of priority handling you
should use the proper terminology (note that they use the phrase "delcaring
an emergency"). Sure, ATC *may* give it to you even if you don't, but there
is no guarantee that they will, and there are plenty of real-world examples
of this out there that ended badly or very well could have.

The various recurrency training courses I have taken over the years have
always referred to the need to declare the emergency in order to be assured
of priority handling. In fact, one of the training centers I am familiar
with is run by a retired ATC professional who also designed and teaches a
portion of the course, so if this is all a misconception it seems to be a
widely held one.

No, I think you described it pretty much as I understand it. There is no need
to declare it to be an emergency for it to be treated as one. All emergencies
should be treated as such even if they are not declared. And to ensure proper
handling declaring an emergency is good communication practice.
That pretty well sums up your post.

The mountain of paperwork is definitely mythical. The worst emergency I ever
had, in which several people were injured when we flew into a microburst, did
have some paperwork, but all they wanted was a written one-page description
of what happened. And that was in the Air Force, where paperwork is king.
Most emergencies require no paperwork at all, and few would require so much
as a NASA report.

Heck, I had to fill out more paperwork for auto accidents the missionaries
had while i was in the Philippines than I have had for any emergency.

--
Waddling Eagle
World Famous Flight Instructor