"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote

So they still treated is as an emergency even though you declined to
declare
it as such when asked. So what's the point in asking if you wanted to
declare?

Good question. Since the fire and rescue guys don't get too much action I
think they like to take every opportunity they can get to roll the
equipment. They seem to spend most of their time polishing it and it's
probably nice to actually drive it to the runway once in awhile.

Also, as I got closer to the airport I was cleared to land on any runway, so
you're right - even ATC was treating it as an emergency.

Things could have been different though, and had I needed priority handling
it would have been better to know that both ATC and I were on the same page
with regard to what we expected from each other.

BDS