Mayday in Utah

Although we can discuss whether the incident should have been an emergency,
the point was that the pilot felt it prudent to use the radio to get
assistance. I flew helicopters with 2/1 glide ratio and we practiced
autorotations regularly, and I always flew over terrain that an engine out
would not be an emergency.

In the midwest, there is probably always a spot to land - but in rugged
terrain, there are sometimes few places to land a ship - no matter what.

I knew a fellow - Cal Butler - who made an emergency landing with an old
torpedo plane that he was ferrying across the Cascades (engine failure) on
lava beds. He no doubt did not call Mayday, but he was a different breed.
He walked away, but the aircraft was in a little ball.

Even if the radio communication and known backup eased the pilot's mind, to
allow him to fly the sailplane, that woud be sufficient reason to justify
the call.

I have scraped off enough pilots who did not call for help that I prefer it
the other way around.

Colin Lamb

At 13:38 13 June 2008, COLIN LAMB wrote:

I have scraped off enough pilots who did not call for help that I prefer
it
the other way around.

I'm afraid I don't understand this. Would the crash
have been any less severe if the pilot you scraped off
had called for help beforehand?

The point here seems to be that the pilot's call
for assistance wasn't based on the lack of a place
to land (obviously such a place was handy) but on
his lack of engine power. Given the positive outcome
it's sort of funny, and it gives us purists a chance to
snicker at the powerglider brigade. How much of our
snickering is rooted in envy is left as an exercise for
the student.

Jim Beckman

On Jun 13, 11:28*am, Jim Beckman wrote:
At 13:38 13 June 2008, COLIN LAMB wrote:



I have scraped off enough pilots who did not call for help that I prefer
it
the other way around.

I'm afraid I don't understand this. *Would the crash
have been any less severe if the pilot you scraped off
had called for help beforehand?

The point here seems to be that the pilot's call
for assistance wasn't based on the lack of a place
to land (obviously such a place was handy) but on
his lack of engine power. *Given the positive outcome
it's sort of funny, and it gives us purists a chance to
snicker at the powerglider brigade. *How much of our
snickering is rooted in envy is left as an exercise for
the student.

Jim Beckman

Obviously? We know next to nothing about what happened. You don't know
if the pilot had anywhere to land. He might have gotten very lucky and
found lift and got to somewhere else. Or he might have ended up in an
extremely bad landing situation and just gotten lucky, or, or, or...
Lets wait for actual information.

Darryl

On Jun 13, 2:15 pm, Darryl Ramm wrote:
On Jun 13, 11:28 am, Jim Beckman wrote:



At 13:38 13 June 2008, COLIN LAMB wrote:

I have scraped off enough pilots who did not call for help that I prefer
it
the other way around.

I'm afraid I don't understand this. Would the crash
have been any less severe if the pilot you scraped off
had called for help beforehand?

The point here seems to be that the pilot's call
for assistance wasn't based on the lack of a place
to land (obviously such a place was handy) but on
his lack of engine power. Given the positive outcome
it's sort of funny, and it gives us purists a chance to
snicker at the powerglider brigade. How much of our
snickering is rooted in envy is left as an exercise for
the student.

Jim Beckman

Obviously? We know next to nothing about what happened. You don't know
if the pilot had anywhere to land. He might have gotten very lucky and
found lift and got to somewhere else. Or he might have ended up in an
extremely bad landing situation and just gotten lucky, or, or, or...
Lets wait for actual information.

Darryl

There are some extremely nasty places to get stuck down low in Utah
(I've been in some of them) and a precautionary Mayday to alert others
doesn't seem unreasonable to me. It also seems standard to use Mayday
rather than Pan Pan. There may be many folks who wouldn't know what
it means, but Mayday is universally understood as a distress signal.

I know we're all tempted to beat up on the wussy motorglider pilots in
the belief that they deploy the engine as a crutch at the slightest
soaring difficulty, but in this case I think we should wait for the
full story. If you check OLC, they've been stacking up some
impressive flights in the past few days.

Mike

At 14:55 14 June 2008, Mike the Strike wrote:

There are some extremely nasty places to get stuck down low in Utah
(I've been in some of them) and a precautionary Mayday to alert others
doesn't seem unreasonable to me. It also seems standard to use Mayday
rather than Pan Pan.

I was sort of under the impression that the expected response
to a Mayday call is to start the wheels rolling immediately for
whatever rescue mission turns out to be appropriate. It
really seems like there should be some intermediate form
that acknowledges that while things could get messy, it
hasn't actually happened yet.

I know we're all tempted to beat up on the wussy motorglider pilots in
the belief that they deploy the engine as a crutch at the slightest
soaring difficulty, but in this case I think we should wait for the
full story. If you check OLC, they've been stacking up some
impressive flights in the past few days.

Well, the engine is, as they say, a real confidence builder.

Jim Beckman