On Sun, 17 Jul 2005 21:03:24 -0400, Richard Kaplan wrote:

No emergency declaration. "Unable reroute" is all that is necessary.

Richard,

See http://asrs.arc.nasa.gov/report_sets_nf.htm and download the .pdf file
for weather encounters.

If the heavy iron pilots says unable and follows up by declaring an
emergency and squawking 7700, then there must be some substance to my
position.

I don't think unable is enough to keep you out of hot water or puts the
ball in ATC's court. If ATC cannot accommodate an "unable", then you need
to declare an emergency. This is well documented in the .pdf file I am
pointing you to. Once you declare an emergency, ATC has to comply with
your requests.

To override an ATC directive (or in this case "non directive"), I'd suspect
a plan of action would be needed and rather quickly if ATC has not offered
a second option (which sounds like what happened in Mikes case).

From Mikes original post, it did not appear he had too many options.

He has since then clarified he had a couple of "outs" to sort this out (I.E
go hold at HGR or land at HGR).

If Mikes situation happened to me, and I do have storm scope in my plane,
and I knew there was bad weather behind me, I will not hesitate to declare
an emergency IF I THINK THE SAFETY OF MY FLIGHT is compromised.

Allen