In article ,
Nyal Williams wrote:
At 17:54 20 February 2004, 303pilot wrote:

On 2/18/04 6:38 PM, in article
,
'plasticguy' wrote:

Off field landings...are not technically emergencies.

Hmm...
What _do_ you call it when an aircraft loses power
and has to land?


My SEL instructor taught me to use the word 'precautionary,'
because, as he said, 'Once the word emergency is used,
you have to fill out papers.'

I've declared an emergency about a half-dozen times,
and never filled out (or been asked to fill out) a shred of paper.
I think this is mostly only asked for if it impacts a
commercial operation or it's a clear case of pilot
error that caused the emergency (fuel exhaustion while
carrying a passenger in a Cezzna, for example).

On the other hand, in every case I was VERY happy to be greeted
by fire trucks and police cars, the airport manager,
or the guy at the 800 number telling me
he was glad I was OK.

One time it was as simple as "I've lost engine power and am
landing at airport XYZ. If I don't call you from the ground
after a safe landing in five minutes, send the fire
department." An airliner relayed my safe landing to ATC,
and when I called them also later, they were just happy I
had a safe landing.