"Mortimer Schnerd, RN" wrote:

That's not necessarily an appropriate use either. I would probably keep that
information to myself, as you did. You use "PAN" when one mag is out and the
other is getting shaky. You use "Mayday" when the second one packs it in. Of
course, shortly before you issue "Mayday" you issue an "Oh, ****! G

That is your opinion, duly noted and filed. When I relayed this
experience to this group last October, I received a few comments from
experienced pilots that I should have indeed declared an emergency over the
failure of one mag. Such is Usenet.

At the time, the lost mag was an urgent situation to me because I honestly
did not know how the engine, an over-TBO, turbo-normalized IO-520, would
react at low RPMs on only one mag, as in a descent out of cruise or while
being vectored behind other aircraft on approach. Other than needing rich
of peak operations to keep temperatures in a comfortable operating range,
the engine was otherwise running without hiccups at full throttle, 2500
RPMs.

While I did not use the term PAN-PAN, I did communicate to ATC that I had
an urgent situation that required direct to the airport with no delaying
vectors, as well as the need to remain at cruise altitude until I decided
to bring it down to the airport. ATC was very accommodating, but I don't
think they declared an emergency for me given the absence of the rescue
trucks at the runway.

Since this experience last year, I would now probably err on the side of
caution and declare an emergency.

--
Peter
























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