The glider that crashed in the Omarama Saddle area of New Zealand
called a mayday and as a result the wreckage was spotted very quickly
The mayday call alerts others and gives a chance for other minds to think
of possible solutions to the problem that could be voiced if there is enough
time. At a minimum the emergency services are alerted quicker.
gary
"Mark James Boyd" wrote in message
news:41eff1ee$1@darkstar...
Marc,
It's my understanding the pilot, after declaring the high oil temp, flew
PAST Livermore and Oakland to get to the home field and
2500 foot runway of Palo Alto.

But keep in mind all of this is second hand info. For all I
know first hand, she may have had high oil temp of short
final to PAO, and the stuff I've written is just fiction.

I'm almost certain the person who related the story wasn't listening on
NORCAL, just on tower. So the timing of the oil-temp
call is in doubt.

It just seemed like this was a more timely example than the
gear up F-33 who flew past Paso Robles and Salinas on the way
to Watsonville after an electrical failure, with the battery juice
ticking away, or the numerous other examples I could make that
seemed less relevant in my mind at the time, but which
I witnessed in person and spoke to the pilot about afterwards.

Frankly, I don't have good firsthand examples from
glider flying yet. I have yet to firsthand witness
a glider injury, or even any glider damage at all.

Lucky so far, I guess. And my exposure is less. I've only
been at a gliderport for a few hundred days in my life.
Most posters on this forum have been to gliderports for
thousands of days, if I guess correctly.

And I'm not sure other than a sketchy outlanding,
when declaring an inflight emergency over radio/ELT would
apply to a glider pilot? During the glide while
under parachute canopy? In flight self-launch fire?
Spoilers frozen closed? Above a closed in wave layer?

How is somebody on the ground going to help out?
Maybe to alert SAR, or clear to land on a busy runway?

I don't see someone reading you the gear extension emergency procedures,
or talking you through IMC flight for the first time, or
suggesting diversions for weather or low fuel.

But hey, I'm open to other suggestions

In article ,
Marc Ramsey wrote:
Mark James Boyd wrote:
I personally don't think pilots declare emergencies enough.
A few days ago, a malibu pilot here at Palo Alto had
high oil temp and didn't declare, and tried to land here.
Too high, too fast, rolled the thing off the end, destroyed
it and injured herself. Could have just declared an emergency and
landed
at Oakland instead (long, wide runway, lots of fire trucks).

Let me get this straight, you wanted her to declare an emergency and fly
across 15 miles or so of water (aka SF Bay) with high oil temp? How
about just turning around and flying the couple of miles to Moffat Field
(where they also have a long wide runway with fire engines)? Even San
Jose International is closer than Oakland.

Marc


--

------------+
Mark J. Boyd